ectively" obtain Miss Wortle's aid. But
all this the Doctor probably knew very well; and though he was often
pleased to grant favours thus asked, he did so because he liked the
granting of favours when they had been asked with a proper degree of care
and attention. She was at the present time of the age in which fathers
are apt to look upon their children as still children, while other men
regard them as being grown-up young ladies. It was now June, and in the
approaching August she would be eighteen. It was said of her that of the
girls all round she was the prettiest; and indeed it would be hard to find
a sweeter-favoured girl than Mary Wortle. Her father had been all his
life a man noted for the manhood of his face. He had a broad forehead,
with bright grey eyes,--eyes that had always a smile passing round them,
though the smile would sometimes show that touch of irony which a smile
may contain rather than the good-humour which it is ordinarily supposed to
indicate. His nose was aquiline, not hooky like a true bird's-beak, but
with that bend which seems to give to the human face the clearest
indication of individual will. His mouth, for a man, was perhaps a little
too small, but was admirably formed, as had been the chin with a deep
dimple on it, which had now by the slow progress of many dinners become
doubled in its folds. His hair had been chestnut, but dark in its hue.
It had now become grey, but still with the shade of the chestnut through
it here and there. He stood five feet ten in height, with small hands and
feet. He was now perhaps somewhat stout, but was still as upright on his
horse as ever, and as well able to ride to hounds for a few fields when by
chance the hunt came in the way of Bowick. Such was the Doctor. Mrs.
Wortle was a pretty little woman, now over forty years of age, of whom it
was said that in her day she had been the beauty of Windsor and those
parts. Mary Wortle took mostly after her father, being tall and comely,
having especially her father's eyes; but still they who had known Mrs.
Wortle as a girl declared that Mary had inherited also her mother's
peculiar softness and complexion.

For many years past none of the pupils had been received within the
parsonage,--unless when received there as guests, which was of frequent
occurrence. All belonging to the school was built outside the glebe land,
as a quite separate establishment, with a door opening from the parsonage
garden t