his stiff silk hat were at their highest point she darted a mocking
smile at him, and he too blushed, all the deeper because he was enraged
with himself for doing so.

"Did you ever see such a pair of fools?" whispered Jane, giggling.

"They cannot help their sex. They say women are fools, and so they are;
but thank Heaven they are not quite so bad as men! I should like to look
back and see Pharaoh passing Gertrude; but if he saw me he would think I
was admiring him; and he is conceited enough already without that."

The two curates became redder and redder as they passed the column of
young ladies. Miss Lindsay would not look to their side of the road, and
Miss Wilson's nod and smile were not quite sincere. She never spoke to
curates, and kept up no more intercourse with the vicar than she could
not avoid. He suspected her of being an infidel, though neither he nor
any other mortal in Lyvern had ever heard a word from her on the subject
of her religious opinions. But he knew that "moral science" was taught
secularly at the college; and he felt that where morals were made
a department of science the demand for religion must fall off
proportionately.

"What a life to lead and what a place to live in!" exclaimed Agatha. "We
meet two creatures, more like suits of black than men; and that is an
incident--a startling incident--in our existence!"

"I think they're awful fun," said Jane, "except that Josephs has such
large ears."

The girls now came to a place where the road dipped through a plantation