s dropped his old
Micklethwayte habits, but after a time she discovered by accident that
he frequented another church, open at a still earlier hour and a little
farther off, and she was forced to come to the conclusion that he acted
out of his characteristic precise scrupulosity, which would not
consider it as correct for her to walk home every day with him. She
chafed, and derided 'the dear old man' a little in her own mind, then
ended with a sigh. Was there any one who cared so much about what was
proper for her? And, after all, was he really older than Mr. Clarence
Fane, whom everybody in her father's set called Clarence, or even
Clare, and treated as the boy of the party, so that she had taken it as
quite natural that he should be paired off with her. It was quite a
discovery!

There was another and more serious disappointment. Mr. Egremont had
not seemed disinclined to consider the giving the agency to Mark, and
Nuttie had begun to think with great satisfaction of May Condamine's
delight in welcoming him, and of the good influence that would be
brought to bear on the dependents, when suddenly there came a coolness.
She could trace the moment, and was sure that it was, when Gregorio
became aware of what was intended. He had reason to dread Mark as an
enemy, and was likely to wish to keep him at a distance; and it had
been Ursula's great hope that an absolute promise might have been given
before he heard of the plan; but Mr. Egremont was always slow to make
up his mind, except when driven by a sudden impulse, and had never
actually said that the post should be offered to his nephew. Nuttie
only detected the turn of the tide by the want of cordiality, the hums
and haws, and by and by the resumption of the unkind ironical tone when
Mark and Annaple were mentioned; and at last, when she had been reading
to him a letter from Mrs. William Egremont full of anxiety for the
young people, and yet of trust in his kindness to them, he exclaimed,
'You've not been writing to her about this absurd proposal?'

'I have not mentioned any proposal at all. What do you mean?'

'Why, this ridiculous idea about the agency. As if I was going to put
my affairs into the hands of a man who has made such a mull of his own.'

'But that was not Mark's fault, papa. He was junior, you know, and had
no power over that Goodenough.'

'He ought, then! Never sail with an unlucky captain. No, no, Mark's
honourable lady would not let him