s mother? Can a fool produce sense? No!'

'I am afraid you will find the young woman difficult to deal with.'

'That makes me all the more determined to see her, Mr Cargrim. I'll tell
her the truth for once in her life. Marry young Pendle indeed!' snorted
the good lady. 'I'll let her see.'

'Speak to her mother first,' urged Cargrim, who wished his visit to be
less warlike, as more conducive to success.

'I'll speak to both of them. I daresay one is as bad as the other. I
must have that public-house removed; it's an eye-sore to Beorminster--a
curse to the place. It ought to be pulled down and the site ploughed up
and sown with salt. Come with me, Mr Cargrim, and you shall see how I
deal with iniquity. I hope I know what is due to myself.'

'Where is Miss Norsham?' asked the chaplain, when they fell into more
general conversation on their way to The Derby Winner.

'Husband-hunting. Dean Alder is showing her the tombs in the cathedral.
Tombs, indeed! It's the altar she's interested in.'

'My dear lady, the dean is too old to marry!'

'He is not too old to be made a fool of, Mr Cargrim. As for Daisy
Norsham, she'd marry Methuselah to take away the shame of being single.
Not that the match with Alder will be out of the way, for she's no
chicken herself.'

'I rather thought Mr Dean had an eye to Miss Whichello.'

'Stuff!' rejoined Mrs Pansey, with a sniff. 'She's far too much taken up
with dieting people to think of marrying them. She actually weighs out
the food on the table when meals are on. No wonder that poor girl Mab is
thin.'

'But she isn't too thin for her height, Mrs Pansey. She seems to me to
be well covered.'

'You didn't notice her at the palace, then,' snapped the widow, avoiding
a direct reply. 'She wore a low-necked dress which made me blush. I
don't know what girls are coming to. They'd go about like so many Eves
if they could.'

'Oh, Mrs Pansey!' remonstrated the chaplain, in a shocked tone.

'Well, it's in the Bible, isn't it, man? You aren't going to say Holy
Writ is indecent, are you?'

'Well, really, Mrs Pansey, clergyman as I am, I must say that there are
parts of the Bible unfit for the use of schools.'

'To the pure all things are pure, Mr Cargrim; you have an impure mind, I
fear. Remember the Thirty-Nine Articles and speak becomingly of holy
things. However, let that pass,' added Mrs Pansey, in livelier tones.
'Here we are, and there's that hussy hanging out from an upper window