ent away, suspicious and half-angry, leaving
Tozer to his own devices. And the afternoon passed in the most
uncomfortable lull imaginable. Though he believed his granddaughter to
have it, he looked again over all his papers, his drawers, his
waste-basket, every corner he had in which such a small matter might
have been hid; but naturally his search was all in vain. Clarence
returned in the afternoon, and was received by poor old Mrs. Tozer, very
tremulous and ready to cry, who did not know whether she ought to
distrust Phoebe or not, and hesitated and stumbled over her words till
the young man thought his father had come in his absence, and that Phoebe
had changed her mind. This had the effect of making him extremely eager
and anxious, and of subduing the bragging and magnificent mood which the
triumphant lover had displayed in the morning. He felt himself "taken
down a peg or two," in his own fine language. He went to the Parsonage
and tried very hard to see Ursula, to secure her help in case anything
had gone wrong, and then to Reginald, whose vexation at the news he felt
sure of, and hoped to enjoy a sight of. But he could see no one in the
absorbed and anxious house. What was he to do? He wandered about,
growing more and more unhappy, wondering if he had been made to fling
himself into the face of fate for no reason, and sure that he could not
meet his father without Phoebe's support. He could not even face her
relations. It was very different from the day of triumph he had looked
for; but, as Phoebe had wisely divined, this disappointment, and all the
attending circumstances, did not do him any harm.

It was late in the afternoon when Northcote called. He too had acted on
the information given by Betsy, and had gone to Cotsdean, who made him
vaguely aware that Tozer had some share in the business in which Mr. May
was involved, and who, on being asked whether it could be set right by
money, grew radiant and declared that nothing could be easier. But when
Northcote saw Tozer, there ensued a puzzling game at cross purposes, for
Tozer had no notion that Mr. May had anything to do with the business,
and declined to understand.

"I ain't got nothing to do with parsons, and if you'll take my advice,
sir, it 'ud be a deal better for you to give 'em up too. You're
a-aggravating the connection for no good, you are," said Tozer, surely
by right of his own troubles and perplexities, and glad to think he
could make some one el