to
himself.

"Anyone would think you was goin' to a weddin'," continued Mrs.
Bindle.

"Not again," said Bindle cheerfully. "Wot was ole Scotch-an'-Soda
after?" he enquired.

"When you ask me a proper question, I'll give you a proper answer,"
announced Mrs. Bindle.

"Oh, Lord!" said Bindle with mock resignation. "Well, wot did the
Reverend MacAndrew want?"

"He came to enquire why Millie was so often absent from chapel. I
shall have to speak to Mr. Hearty," said Mrs. Bindle.

Bindle's reply was a prolonged whistle. "'E's after Millikins, is 'e?"
he muttered.

That is how both Bindle and Mrs. Bindle first learned that the Rev.
Andrew MacFie was interested in their pretty niece, Millie Hearty.

Mrs. Bindle mentioned the fact of Mr. MacFie's call to Mr. Hearty, and
from that moment he had seen in the minister a potential son-in-law.

The angular piety of Mr. MacFie rendered him an awkward, not to say a
clumsy, lover.

"I likes to see ole Mac a-'angin' round Millikins," remarked Bindle to
Mrs. Bindle one evening over supper. "It's like an 'ippopotamus
a-givin' the glad-eye to a canary."

"Heathen!" was Mrs. Bindle's sole comment.

Millie Hearty herself had been much troubled by Mr. MacFie's ponderous
attentions. At first she had regarded them merely as the friendly
interest of a pastor in a member of his flock; but soon they became
too obvious for misinterpretation.

"Millikins!" said Bindle one evening, as he and Millie were walking
home from the pictures, "you ain't a-goin' to forget Charlie, are
you?"

"Uncle Joe!" There was reproach in Millie's voice as she withdrew her
arm from Bindle's.

"All right, Millikins," said Bindle, capturing her hand and placing it
through his arm, "don't get 'uffy. Ole Mac's been makin' such a dead
set at you, that I wanted to know 'ow things stood."

Bindle's remarks had opened the flood-gates of Millie's confidence.
She told him that she had not liked to speak of it before because
nothing had been said, although there had been some very obvious hints
from Mr. Hearty.

"I _hate_ him, Uncle Joe. He's always--always----" She paused,
blushing.

"A-givin' of you the glad-eye," suggested Bindle. "I seen 'im."

"Oh, he's horrible, Uncle Joe. I'm sure he's a wicked man."

"'Course 'e is," replied Bindle with conviction, "or 'e wouldn't be a
parson."

Bindle had spoken to Mr. Hearty about the matter. "Look 'ere, 'Earty,
you ain't goin' back on them two love-birds, are