n against my will," said she. "I am beyond my
depth. What am I to do?"

"Most women feel so at first," replied her aunt calmly. "Many want to
escape. Some are afterwards sorry they didn't."

"Have you heard of this too, and not told me?" asked Esther.

Mrs. Murray had thought too long over the coming trouble to hesitate now
that the moment had come. She had watched for the crisis; her mind was
made up to take her share of the responsibility; so she now settled
herself down to the task. As the thing had to be done, she thought that
the shortest agony was the most merciful.

"Yes!" she answered. "Several persons have mentioned it to me, and I
have had to profess not to know what they meant."

"What did they say?" asked Esther breathlessly.

"The only one who has talked openly to me about it is your friend Mrs.
Dyer. The story came from her, and I believe she invented it. Of course
she disapproves. I never knew her to approve."

"What reason does she give?"

"She says that you are an amiable girl, but one given up to worldly
pursuits and without a trace of religious principle; the last woman to
make a clergyman's wife, though you might do very well for an artist or
somebody wicked enough for you, as I gathered her idea. I am told that
she amuses herself by adding that she never took Mr. Hazard for a
clergyman, and the sooner he quits the pulpit, the better. She is never
satisfied without hitting every one she can reach."

"What does she want?" asked Esther.

"I suppose she wants to break off the intimacy. She thinks there is no
actual engagement yet, and the surest way to prevent one is to invent
one in time."

Esther reflected a few minutes before beginning again.

"Aunt, do you think I am fit to be his wife?"

"It all depends on you," replied Mrs. Murray. "If you feel yourself fit,
you are the best person in the world for it. You would be a brand saved
from the burning, and it will be a great feather in Mr. Hazard's cap to
convert you into a strong church-woman. He could then afford to laugh at
Mrs. Dyer, and all the parish would laugh with him."

"Aunt!" said Esther in an awe-struck tone; "I am jealous of the church.
I never shall like it."

"Then, Esther, you are doing very wrong to let Mr. Hazard think you can
marry him. You will ruin him, and yourself too."

"He has seen how I have struggled," answered Esther with a sort of sob.
"I never knew how gentle and patient a man could be until I saw how he