o blame, scoldings, and derision. The prospect
was almost more than she could bear. She went to the door, opened it,
and turning to Anna fired a parting shot. "Let no one," she said, her
voice shaken by deepest disgust, "who wants to be happy, ever spend a
penny on her husband's relations."

And then she called Hilton; nor did she leave off calling till Hilton
appeared, and so prevented Anna from saying another word.

CHAPTER VIII

But if Susie's rage was such that she refused to say good-bye, and
terrified Miss Leech while she was waiting in the hall for the carriage
by dark allusions to strait-waistcoats, when the parson was taken into
Anna's confidence after dinner on the following night his raptures knew
no bounds. "_Liebes, edeldenkendes Fraeulein!_" he burst out, clasping
his hands and gazing with a moist, ecstatic eye at this young sprig of
piety. He was a good man, not very learned, not very refined,
sentimental exceedingly, and much inclined to become tearfully eloquent
on such subjects as _die liebe kleine Kinder, die herrliche Natur, die
Frau als Schutzengel_, and the sacredness of _das Familienleben_.

Anna felt that he was the only person at hand who could perhaps help her
to find twelve dejected ladies willing to be made happy, and had
unfolded her plan to him as tersely as possible in her stumbling German,
with none of those accompanying digressions into the question of
feelings that Susie stigmatised as drivel; and she sat uncomfortable
enough while he burst forth into praises that would not end of her
goodness and nobleness. It is hard to look anything but fatuous when
somebody is extolling your virtues to your face, and she could not help
both looking and feeling foolish during his extravagant glorification.
She did not doubt his sincerity, and indeed he was absolutely sincere,
but she wished that he would be less flowery and less long, and would
skip the raptures and get on to the main subject, which was practical
advice.

She wore the simple white dress that had caused such a sensation in the
neighbourhood, a garment that hung in long, soft folds, accentuating her
slender length of limb. Her bright hair was parted and tucked behind her
ears. Everything about her breathed an absolute want of
self-consciousness and vanity, a perfect freedom from the least thought
of the impression she might be making; yet she was beautiful, and the
good man observing her beauty, and supposing from what she