"have you given up your vocation? Dear me! Mr Lerew will be very much
disappointed; he fully expected that you would devote your fortune to
Saint Agatha's."

"I will explain matters to you, aunt, by-and-by," answered Clara, not
wishing on her first arrival at home to enter into any discussion. "I
hope that you have not felt yourself very solitary during my long
absence."

"As to that, I can't say I have been very lively, for the whole
neighbourhood is divided, and because I go to church and confession, all
of your father's old friends have ceased to call on me; but of late I
have begun to think that they are not altogether wrong. I must
acknowledge that since Sir Reginald and Lady Bygrave, and Mrs Lerew,
and two or three other people turned Catholics, my confidence in the
vicar and the High Church has been a little shaken. Mrs Lerew wanted
me to turn too; but I was not going to do that, and even the vicar did
not advise it, though he said he couldn't help his wife going over; for
if so many went, people's suspicions would be aroused, and he should be
unable to establish his college."

"I am truly thankful that you did not go over," answered Clara. "I have
learnt a good deal about the Ritualists of late, and I am very sure that
their tendency is towards Rome. I have one favour to ask, that is,
should Mr Lerew call, that you will not admit him, as it would be
painful to me to see him again, for I cannot receive him as a friend."

"Why, have you found out anything about him?" asked Miss Pemberton, her
conscience accusing her.

"There is much, aunt, to which, I object in him," answered Clara,
firmly.

"Well, I don't wish you to be annoyed, my dear, in any way," said Miss
Pemberton; "and, in truth, I suspect that he wanted to get hold of your
fortune for his new college. If he finds that he has no chance of that,
I don't think he will trouble you much."

"I would rather not think about him in any way," said Clara; "and do
pray tell me how Widow Jones and Mrs Humble and her blind daughter, and
the poor Hobbies, with their idiot boy, are getting on. I must go and
see them and my other friends as soon as possible."

Clara then went on to make further enquiries about her poorer
neighbours, and was grieved to find that her aunt had not troubled
herself about them during her absence.

"It was all my fault," she said to herself; "I was placed here to help
them, and I have neglected that very clear duty by givin