always be particular in one point, my dear
Anna, and that is punctuality. More hangs upon it than most people
recognise: the comfort of a household certainly does. If you are late
for one thing, you are late for the next, and so on, until the whole day
is thrown into disorder. I am obliged to map my day carefully out to
get through my business, and I expect others to do the same. I speak
seriously, because your father is one of the most unpunctual men I ever
knew; and if you have inherited his failing, you cannot begin to
struggle against it too soon."

Anna had not been many days at the Vicarage before she found that
punctuality was Aunt Sarah's idol, and that nothing offended her more
than want of respect to it from others. Certainly everything went like
clockwork at Waverley, and though Anna fancied that Mr Forrest inwardly
rebelled a little, he was outwardly quite submissive. All Aunt Sarah's
arrangements and plans were so neatly fitted into each other that the
least transgression in one upset the next, and the effect of this was
that she had no odds and ends of leisure to spare. Anna even found it
difficult to put all the questions she had in her mind.

"Not now, my dear, I am engaged," was the frequent reply. She managed
to learn, however, that a visit to her grandfather had already been
planned for that week, and that Mrs Forrest intended to leave her at
his house at Dornton and fetch her again after driving farther on to
make a call.

With this she was obliged to be satisfied, and it was quite strange how,
after a few days, the new surroundings and rules and pleasures of
Waverley seemed to make much that had filled her mind on her arrival
fade and grow less important. She still wished to see her grandfather
again; but the idea of being his chief comforter and support now seemed
impossible, and rather foolish, and she would not have hinted it to Aunt
Sarah on any account. Neither did it seem necessary, as the days went
on, to mention her drive with Mr Oswald and the accident of passing her
grandfather in the lane.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE PROFESSOR.

...I have heard a grave divine say that God has two dwellings--one in
heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart.--_Izaak Walton_.

"Del, my love," said Mrs Hunt, "I feel one of my worst headaches coming
on. Will you go this afternoon to see Mrs Winn, instead of me?" Delia
stood under the medlar tree on the lawn, ready to go out, with a