o make petticoats all day, of course she
would make them; but in this contest he had been, as it were, neutral,
and had certainly given her no orders. She thought a good deal about it
while at the deanery, and made up her mind that she would sit in the
petticoat conclave no longer. It could not be her duty to pass her time
in an employment in which a poor woman might with difficulty earn
sixpence a day. Surely she might do better with her time than that,
even though she should spend it all in reading Gibbon.

CHAPTER IV.

AT THE DEANERY.

There was a dinner-party at the deanery during Miss Tallowax's sojourn
at Brotherton. Mr. Canon Holdenough and Lady Alice were there. The
bishop and his wife had been asked,--a ceremony which was gone through
once a year,--but had been debarred from accepting the invitation by
the presence of clerical guests at the palace. But his lordship's
chaplain, Mr. Groschut, was present. Mr. Groschut also held an honorary
prebendal stall, and was on of the chapter,--a thorn sometimes in the
Dean's side. But appearances were well kept up at Brotherton, and no
one was more anxious that things should be done in a seemly way than
the Dean. Therefore, Mr. Groschut, who was a very low churchman and had
once been a Jew, but who bore a very high character for theological
erudition, was asked to the deanery. There was also one or two other
clergymen there, with their wives, and Mr. and Mrs. Houghton. Mrs.
Houghton, it will be remembered, was the beautiful woman who had
refused to become the wife of Lord George Germain. Before taking this
step, the Dean had been careful to learn whether his son-in-law would
object to meet the Houghtons. Such objection would have been foolish,
as the families had all known each other. Both Mr. De Baron, Mrs.
Houghton's father, and Mr. Houghton himself, had been intimate with the
late marquis, and had been friends of the present lord before he had
quitted the country. A lady when she refuses a gentleman gives no cause
of quarrel. All this the Dean understood; and as he himself had known
both Mr. Houghton and Mr. De Baron ever since he came to Brotherton, he
thought it better that there should be such a meeting. Lord George
blushed up to the roots of his hair, and then said that he should be
very glad to meet the gentleman and his wife.

The two young brides had known each other as girls, and now met with,
at any rate, an appearance of friendship.

"My dear," s