as he could do that he would never recognise the necessity of
putting himself on short commons. He had a well-cut nose, not quite
aquiline, but tending that way, a chin with a dimple on it, and as
sweet a mouth as ever declared the excellence of a man's temper.
Dorothy immediately began to compare him with her brother Hugh, who
was to her, of all men, the most godlike. It never occurred to her to
make any comparison between Mr. Gibson and Mr. Burgess. Her brother
Hugh was the most godlike of men; but there was something godlike
also about the new comer. Mr. Gibson, to Dorothy's eyes, was by no
means divine.

"I used to call you Aunt Stanbury," said Brooke Burgess to the old
lady; "am I to go on doing it now?"

"You may call me what you like," said Miss Stanbury. "Only,--dear
me;--I never did see anybody so much altered." Before she went up to
dress herself for dinner, Miss Stanbury was quite restored to her
good humour, as Dorothy could perceive.

The dinner passed off well enough. Mr. Gibson, at the head of the
table, did, indeed, look very much out of his element, as though he
conceived that his position revealed to the outer world those ideas
of his in regard to Dorothy, which ought to have been secret for a
while longer. There are few men who do not feel ashamed of being
paraded before the world as acknowledged suitors, whereas ladies
accept the position with something almost of triumph. The lady
perhaps regards herself as the successful angler, whereas the
gentleman is conscious of some similitude to the unsuccessful fish.
Mr. Gibson, though he was not yet gasping in the basket, had some
presentiment of this feeling, which made his present seat of honour
unpleasant to him. Brooke Burgess, at the other end of the table,
was as gay as a lark. Mrs. MacHugh sat on one side of him, and
Miss Stanbury on the other, and he laughed at the two old ladies,
reminding them of his former doings in Exeter,--how he had hunted
Mrs. MacHugh's cat, and had stolen Aunt Stanbury's best apricot jam,
till everybody began to perceive that he was quite a success. Even
Sir Peter Mancrudy laughed at his jokes, and Mrs. Powel, from the
other side of Sir Peter, stretched her head forward so that she might
become one of the gay party.

"There isn't a word of it true," said Miss Stanbury. "It's all pure
invention, and a great scandal. I never did such a thing in my life."

"Didn't you though?" said Brooke Burgess. "I remember it as well