prehended some violent outbreak. He knew all her positiveness
and inflexibility,--an inflexibility with which, fortunately, his
convictions of duty rarely, if ever, came in conflict. He therefore
respected it very greatly. In all worldly affairs, especially in all
that regarded social proprieties, he was accustomed to look upon the
opinions of his sister as eminently sound, and to give them full
indorsement. Unwittingly the old gentleman had subordinated the whole
arrangement of his ceremonious visitings and of his wardrobe to the
active and lively suggestions of Miss Eliza. Over and over, when in an
absent moment he had slipped from his study for a stroll down the
street, the keen eye of the maiden sister had detected him before yet he
had passed through the parsonage-gate, and her keen voice came after
him,--

"Really, Benjamin, that coat is hardly respectable at this hour on the
street. You'll find your new one hanging in the press."

And the Doctor, casting a wary look over his person, as if to protest in
favor of an old friend, would go back submissively to comply with the
exactions of the precise spinster. A wife could not have been more
irritatingly observant of such shortcomings; and it is doubtful if even
so godly a man would have yielded to a wife's suggestions with fewer
protests.

After due reflection on the letter of Maverick, the Doctor stepped
softly to the stairs, and said,--

"Eliza, may I speak with you for a few moments in the study?"

There was something in the parson's tone that promised an important
communication; and Miss Johns presently appeared and seated herself,
work in hand, over against the parson, at the study-table. Older than
when we took occasion to describe her appearance in the earlier portion
of this narrative, and--if it could be--more prim and stately. A pair of
delicately bowed gold spectacles were now called into requisition by
her, for the nicer needle-work on which she specially prided herself.
Yet her eye had lost none of its apparent keenness, and, inclining her
head slightly, she threw an inquiring glance over her spectacles at the
Doctor, who was now as composed as if the startling news of the day had
been wholly unheard.

"Eliza," said he, "you have sometimes spoken of the possibility of an
attachment between Adaly and our poor Reuben."

"Yes, I have, Benjamin," said the spinster, with an air of confidence
that seemed to imply full knowledge of the circumstances.