"Well! indeed, my dear Agnes, do you know that, although I love the old man dearly, I must say I think he is rather weak." "So I fear," said Mrs. Buckley; "but he is surely not so weak as to allow that young fellow to haunt the house, after he has had a hint that he is making love to Mary?" "My dear, he accepts him as her suitor. He says he has been aware of it for some time, and that he has spoken to Mary about it, and made no impression; so that now he considers it a settled thing." "What culpable weakness! So Mary encourages him, then?" "She adores him, and won't hear a word against him." "Unfortunate girl," said Mrs. Buckley! "and with such a noble young fellow as Stockbridge ready to cut off his head for her! It is perfectly inconceivable." "Young Hawker is very handsome, my dear, you must remember." "Is he?" said Mrs. Buckley. "I call him one of the most evil-looking men I ever saw." "My dear Agnes, I think if you were to speak boldly to her, you might do some good. You might begin to undermine this unlucky infatuation of her's; and I am sure, if her eyes were once opened, that the more she saw him, the less she would like him." "I think, James," said Mrs. Buckley, "that it becomes the duty of us, who have been so happy in our marriage, to prevent our good old vicar's last days from being rendered miserable by such a mesalliance as this. I am very fond of Mary; but the old Vicar, my dear, has taken the place of your father to me." "He is like a second father to me too," said the Major; "but he wants a good many qualities that my own father had. He hasn't his energy or determination. Why, if my father had been in his place, and such an ill-looking young dog as that came hanging about the premises, my father would have laid his stick about his back. And it would be a good thing if somebody would do it now." Such was Major Buckley's opinion. Chapter VIII THE VICAR HEARS SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE. "My dear," said old Miss Thornton, that evening, "I have consulted Mrs. Buckley on the sleeves, and she is of opinion that they should be pointed." "Do you think," said Mary, "that she thought much about the matter?" "She promised to give the matter her earnest attention," said Miss Thornton; "so I suppose she did. Mrs. Buckley would never speak at random, if she once promised to give her real opinion." "No, I don't think she would, Auntie, but she is not very particular in her own dress." "She always looks like a thorough lady, my dear: Mrs. Buckley is a woman whom I could set before you as a model for imitation far sooner than myself." "She is a duck, at all events," said Mary; "and her husband is a darling."