r. It
aint what many men would have done," said the admiring but unlucky
adherent of the suspected Curate: "he come up, seeing as she was by
herself, and walked by her, and gave her a deal of good advice, and
brought her home. Her aunt and me was struck all of a heap to see the
clergyman a-standing at our door. 'I've brought Rosa home,' he said,
making believe a bit sharp. 'Don't send her out no more so late at
night,' and was off like a shot, not waiting for no thanks. It's my
opinion as there aint many such gentlemen. I can't call to mind as I
ever met with his fellow before."

"But a young creature like that ought not to have been out so late,"
said Miss Dora, trying to harden herself into severity. "I wonder very
much that you like to walk up Grange Lane in the dark. I should think
it very unpleasant, for my part; and I am sure I would not allow it,
Mr Elsworthy," she said firmly, "if such a girl belonged to me."

"But, please, I wasn't walking up Grange Lane," said Rosa, with some
haste. "I was at Mrs Hadwin's, where Mr Wentworth lives. I am sure I
did not want to trouble him," said the little beauty, recovering her
natural spirit as she went on, "but he insisted on walking with me; it
was all his own doing. I am sure I didn't want him;" and here Rosa
broke off abruptly, with a consciousness in her heart that she was
being lectured. She rushed to her defensive weapons by natural
instinct, and grew crimson all over her pretty little face, and
flashed lightning out of her eyes, which at the same time were not
disinclined to tears. All this Miss Dora made note of with a sinking
heart.

"Do you mean to say that you went to Mrs Hadwin's to see Mr
Wentworth?" asked that unlucky inquisitor, with a world of horror in
her face.

"I went with the papers," said Rosa, "and I--I met him in the garden.
I am sure it wasn't my fault," said the girl, bursting into petulant
tears. "Nobody has any occasion to scold me. It was Mr Wentworth as
would come;" and Rosa sobbed, and lighted up gleams of defiance behind
her tears. Miss Dora sat looking at her with a very troubled, pale
face. She thought all her fears were true, and matters worse than she
imagined; and being quite unused to private inquisitions, of course
she took all possible steps to create the scandal for which she had
come to look.

"Did you ever meet him in the garden before?" asked Miss Dora,
painfully, in a low voice. During this conversation Mr Elsworthy had
be