"I never could think of Marion as a child at all," said the mother, with a little sigh. "She has always been so much older than her years. And as for Marmaduke, poor fellow, I am sure he can't have proper food at his lodgings. I have told Sarah to make some jelly for him to take away with him. Of course it is natural that the separation should be a trial to him, but I dare say it will all come right by and by." "But--good heavens, what a marriage for Marion!" cried the Vicar, beginning to walk hastily up and down under, the cedar, and crushing the daisies that peeped up through the not too carefully trimmed grass. "My dear," said Mrs Miles, knitting calmly, "Marion is a girl who would be miserable unless she had her own way. With all his strong will, Anthony would be more likely to listen to reason." "Anthony!" exclaimed her husband, stopping before her. "There is nothing of the sort going on with Anthony?" "It has not come to the same point, of course, but it is easy to see that he has a fancy for Winifred. I am sure I should be very glad if you could persuade him to make up his mind as to what he will be, and get him out of the place." "I don't see why," said the Vicar, amazed at his wife's penetration. "I have never thought of what you have just put before me, but it appears to me that Anthony would be fortunate to secure so good a girl as Winifred Chester." "Fortunate, Mr Miles!" said his wife, laying down her work, and speaking with unusual irritation. "Why, Anthony, with his good looks, his cleverness, and his fortune, might marry any girl in the county. I have never seen any one good enough for him, that is the worst of it; and as for Winifred, what you can see in her that you should call him fortunate, I am sure I cannot conceive. She will be a very lucky girl that gets our Anthony." The Vicar said, "Pooh, pooh!" but he had a humiliating sense of being baffled by his women. He went away, without further words, across the lawn and past the mignonettes and sweet-peas into his study. There he pulled down the blind to shut out the sun, in a fit of absence tore up a carefully arranged table of parish accounts which he had just prepared for Mr Mannering to audit, flung it into the waste-paper basket, and sat down to write a letter to old Mr Tregennas. CHAPTER SEVEN. Sunday was rather a gay day at the Vicarage. The Hardlands party were in the habit of spending a good deal of time there, Winifred, indeed, remaining for the early dinner, so as to be in her place in the school before the afternoon service; and there were further elements of friendliness in the two Mr Mannerings, who would drop in for a chat with the Vicar when his work was over.