“I find him acting as Mr Stumfold’s curate.”

“Yes; and when I come to warn you, you insult me. He is Mr Stumfold’s curate, and in many respects he is well fitted for his office.”

“But has he two or three wives already, Mrs Stumfold?”

“I never said that he had.”

“I thought you hinted it.”

“I never hinted it, Miss Mackenzie. If you would only be a little more careful in the things which you allow yourself to say, it would be better for yourself; and better for me too, while I am with you.”

“I declare you said something about two or three wives; and if there is anything of that kind true of a gentleman and a clergyman, I don’t think he ought to be allowed to go about as a single gentleman. I mean as a curate. Mr Maguire is nothing to me,—nothing whatever; and I don’t see why I should have been mixed up with him; but if there is anything of that sort—”

“But there isn’t.”

“Then, Mrs Stumfold, I don’t think you ought to have mentioned two or three wives. I don’t, indeed. It is such a horrid idea,—quite horrid! And I suppose, after all, the poor man has not got one?”

“If you had allowed me, I should have told you all, Miss Mackenzie. Mr Maguire is not married, and never has been married, as far as I know.”

“Then I do think what you said of him was very cruel.”

“I said nothing; as you would have known, only you are so hot. Miss Mackenzie, you quite astonish me; you do, indeed. I had expected to find you temperate and calm; instead of that, you are so impetuous, that you will not listen to a word. When it first came to my ears that there might be something between you and Mr Maguire—”

“I will not be told about something. What does something mean, Mrs Stumfold?”

“When I was told of this,” continued Mrs Stumfold, determined that she would not be stopped any longer by Miss Mackenzie’s energy; “when I was told of this, and, indeed, I may say saw it—”

“You never saw anything, Mrs Stumfold.”

“I immediately perceived that it was my duty to come to you; to come to you and tell you that another lady has a prior claim upon Mr Maguire’s hand and heart.”

“Oh, indeed.”

“Another young lady,”—with an emphasis on the word young,—“whom he first met at my house, who was introduced to him by me,—a young lady not above thirty years of age, and quite suitable in every way to be Mr Maguire’s wife. She may not have quite so much money as you; but she has a fair provision, and money is not everything; a lady in every way suitable—”

“But is this suitable young lady, who is only thirty years of age, engaged to him?”

“I presume, Miss Mackenzie, that in speaking to you, I am speaking to a lady who would not wish to interfere with another lady who has been before her. I do hope that you cannot be indifferent to the ordinary feelings of a female Christian on that subject. What would you think if you were interfered with, though, perhaps, as you had not your fortune in early life, you may never have known what that was.”