.

"An inexperienced girl," he said to himself, composedly.

CHAPTER V.

Before she went home, Marcella turned into the little rectory garden to
see if she could find Mary Harden for a minute or two. The intimacy
between them was such that she generally found entrance to the house by
going round to a garden door and knocking or calling. The house was very
small, and Mary's little sitting-room was close to this door.

Her knock brought Mary instantly.

"Oh! come in. You won't mind. We were just at dinner. Charles is going
away directly. Do stay and talk to me a bit."

Marcella hesitated, but at last went in. The meals at the rectory
distressed her--the brother and sister showed the marks of them. To-day
she found their usual fare carefully and prettily arranged on a spotless
table; some bread, cheese, and boiled rice--nothing else. Nor did they
allow themselves any fire for meals. Marcella, sitting beside them in
her fur, did not feel the cold, but Mary was clearly shivering under her
shawl. They eat meat twice a week, and in the afternoon Mary lit the
sitting-room fire. In the morning she contented herself with the
kitchen, where, as she cooked for many sick folk, and had only a girl of
fourteen whom she was training to help her with the housework, she had
generally much to do.

The Rector did not stay long after her arrival. He had a distant visit
to pay to a dying child, and hurried off so as to be home, if possible,
before dark. Marcella admired him, but did not feel that she understood
him more as they were better acquainted. He was slight and young, and
not very clever; but a certain inexpugnable dignity surrounded him,
which, real as it was, sometimes irritated Marcella. It sat oddly on his
round face--boyish still, in spite of its pinched and anxious look--but
there it was, not to be ignored. Marcella thought him a Conservative,
and very backward and ignorant in his political and social opinions. But
she was perfectly conscious that she must also think him a saint; and
that the deepest things in him were probably not for her.

Mr. Harden said a few words to her now as to her straw-plaiting scheme,
which had his warmest sympathy--Marcella contrasted his tone gratefully
with that of Wharton, and once more fell happily in love with her own
ideas--then he went off, leaving the two girls together.

"Have you seen Mrs. Hurd this morning?" said Mary.

"Yes, Willie seems very bad."

Mary assented.