“My Dear Taffy,--No, I am not offended in the least; but very glad. I do not think you are fitted for the priesthood; but my doubts have nothing to do with your doubts, which I don’t understand, though you tried to explain them so carefully. You will come through _them_, I expect. I don’t know that I have any reasons that could be put on paper: only, somehow, I cannot _see_ you in a black coat and clerical hat.” “You complain that I never write about George. You don’t deserve to hear, since you refuse to come to our wedding. But would _you_ talk, if you happened to be in love? There, I have told you more than ever I told George, whose conceit has to be kept down. Let this console you.” “Our new parson, when he comes, is to lodge down in Innis Village. Your mother--but no doubt she has told you--stays in the Parsonage while she pleases. She and your grandmother are both well. I see her every day: I have so much to learn, and she is so wise. Her beautiful eyes--but oh, Taffy, it must be terrible to be a widow! She smiles and is always cheerful; but the _look_ in them! How can I describe it? When I find her alone with her lace-work, or sometimes (but it is not often) with her hands in her lap, she seems to come out of her silence with an effort, as others withdraw themselves from talk. I wonder if she does talk in those silences of hers. Another thing, it is only a few weeks now since she put on a widow’s cap, and yet I cannot remember her--can scarcely picture her--without it. I am sure that if I happened to call one day when she had laid it aside, I should begin to talk quite as if we were strangers.” “Believe me, yours sincerely,” “HONORIA.” But the wedding, after all, did not take place until the beginning of October, a week before the close of the Long Vacation; and Taffy, after all, was present. The postponement had been enforced by many delays in building and furnishing the new wing at Carwithiel; for Sir Harry insisted that the young couple must live under one roof with him, and Honoria (as we know) hated the very stones of Tredinnis.