e her a hint that it would be better if
she would associate more with Mrs. Jenkyns, and--'

'Couldn't Mr. Prendergast; I've more regard for doing as I would be done
by. When you see Edna, Honor--'

'They are very respectable women,' said the curate, standing his ground;
'and it would be much better for her than letting it be said she gives
herself airs.'

'That's all because we have had her up to the castle to sing.'

'Well, so it is, I believe. They do say, too--I don't know whether it is
so--that the work has not been so well attended to, nor the children so
orderly.'

'Spite, spite, Mr. Prendergast; I had a better opinion of you than to
think you could be taken in by the tongues of Wrapworth.'

'Well, certainly I did hear a great noise the other day.'

'I see how it is! This is a systematic attempt to destroy the impression
I wished to produce.'

He tried to argue that he thought very well of Miss Murrell, but she
would not hear; and she went on with her pretty, saucy abuse, in her
gayest tones, as she tripped along the churchyard path, now, doubtless,
too familiar to renew the associations that might have tamed her spirits.
Perhaps the shock her vivacity gave to the feeling of her friends was
hardly reasonable, but it was not the less real; though, even in passing,
Honora could not but note the improved condition of the two graves, now
carefully tended, and with a lovely white rose budding between them.

A few more steps, and from the open window of the schoolhouse there was
heard a buzz and hum, not outrageous, but which might have caused the
item of discipline not to figure well in an inspector's report; but Mr.
Prendergast and Lucilla appeared habituated to the like, for they
proceeded without apology.

It was a handsome gable-ended building, Elizabethan enough to testify to
the taste that had designed it, and with a deep porch, where Honor had
advanced, under Lucilla's guidance, so as to have a moment's view of the
whole scene before their arrival had disturbed it.

The children's backs were towards the door, as they sat on their forms at
work. Close to the oriel window, the only person facing the door, with a
table in front of her, there sat, in a slightly reclining attitude, a
figure such as all reports of the new race of schoolmistresses had hardly
led Honor to imagine to be the _bona fide_ mistress. Yet the dress was
perfectly quiet, merely lilac cotton, with no ornament save the small bow