She did not mean to go beyond this salutary general doctrine,

and threw her indignation into a needless unwinding of her worsted,
knitting her brow at it with a grand air.

"I cannot conceive how it could be any pain to Mr. Farebrother,"
said Fred, who nevertheless felt that surprising conceptions were

beginning to form themselves.
"Precisely; you cannot conceive," said Mrs. Garth, cutting her words

as neatly as possible.
For a moment Fred looked at the horizon with a dismayed anxiety,

and then turning with a quick movement said almost sharply--
"Do you mean to say, Mrs. Garth, that Mr. Farebrother is in love

with Mary?"
"And if it were so, Fred, I think you are the last person who

ought to be surprised," returned Mrs. Garth, laying her knitting
down beside her and folding her arms. It was an unwonted sign

of emotion in her that she should put her work out of her hands.
In fact her feelings were divided between the satisfaction of giving

Fred his discipline and the sense of having gone a little too far.
Fred took his hat and stick and rose quickly.

"Then you think I am standing in his way, and in Mary's too?"
he said, in a tone which seemed to demand an answer.

Mrs. Garth could not speak immediately. She had brought herself into
the unpleasant position of being called on to say what she really felt,

yet what she knew there were strong reasons for concealing.
And to her the consciousness" target="_blank" title="n.意识；觉悟；知觉">consciousness of having exceeded in words was

peculiarly mortifying. Besides, Fred had given out unexpected
electricity, and he now added, "Mr. Garth seemed pleased that

Mary should be attached to me. He could not have known anything of this."
Mrs. Garth felt a severe twinge at this mention of her husband, the fear

that Caleb might think her in the wrong not being easily endurable.
She answered, wanting to check unintended consequences--

"I spoke from inference only. I am not aware that Mary knows
anything of the matter."

But she hesitated to beg that he would keep entire silence on a
subject which she had herself unnecessarily mentioned, not being

used to stoop in that way; and while she was hesitating there
was already a rush of unintended consequences under the apple-tree

where the tea-things stood. Ben, bouncing across the grass with
Brownie at his heels, and seeing the kitten dragging the knitting

by a lengthening line of wool, shouted and clapped his hands;
Brownie barked, the kitten, desperate, jumped on the tea-table and

upset the milk, then jumped down again and swept half the cherries
with it; and Ben, snatching up the half-knitted sock-top, fitted

it over the kitten's head as a new source of madness, while Letty
arriving cried out to her mother against this cruelty--it was a

history as full of sensation as "This is the house that Jack built."
Mrs. Garth was obliged to interfere, the other young ones came up

and the tete-a-tete with Fred was ended. He got away as soon
as he could, and Mrs. Garth could only imply some retractation

of her severity by saying "God bless you" when she shook hands with him.
She was unpleasantly conscious that she had been on the verge

of speaking as "one of the foolish women speaketh"--telling first
and entreating silence after. But she had not entreated silence,

and to prevent Caleb's blame she determined to blame herself and
confess all to him that very night. It was curious what an awful

tribunal the mild Caleb's was to her, whenever he set it up.
But she meant to point out to him that the revelation might do Fred

Vincy a great deal of good.
No doubt it was having a strong effect on him as he walked to Lowick.

Fred's light hopeful nature had perhaps never had so much of a
bruise as from this suggestion that if he had been out of the way

Mary might have made a thoroughly good match. Also he was piqued
that he had been what he called such a stupid lout as to ask that

intervention from Mr. Farebrother. But it was not in a lover's nature--
it was not in Fred's, that the new anxiety raised about Mary's

feeling should not surmount every other. Notwithstanding his
trust in Mr. Farebrother's generosity, notwithstanding what Mary

had said to him, Fred could not help feeling that he had a rival:
it was a new consciousness" target="_blank" title="n.意识；觉悟；知觉">consciousness, and he objected to it extremely,

not being in the least ready to give up Mary for her good, being ready
rather to fight for her with any man whatever">whatsoever. But the fighting

with Mr. Farebrother must be of a metaphorical kind, which was much
more difficult to Fred than the muscular. Certainly this experience

was a discipline for Fred hardly less sharp than his disappointment
about his uncle's will. The iron had not entered into his soul,

but he had begun to imagine what the sharp edge would be.
It did not once occur to Fred that Mrs. Garth might be mistaken

about Mr. Farebrother, but he suspected that she might be wrong
about Mary. Mary had been staying at the parsonage lately, and her

mother might know very little of what had been passing in her mind.
He did not feel easier when he found her looking cheerful with the

three ladies in the drawing-room. They were in animated discussion
on some subject which was dropped when he entered, and Mary

was copying the labels from a heap of shallowcabinet drawers,
in a minute writing" target="_blank" title="n.笔迹；书法">handwriting which she was skilled in. Mr. Farebrother

was somewhere in the village, and the three ladies knew nothing
of Fred's peculiar relation to Mary: it was impossible for either

of them to propose that they should walk round the garden,
and Fred predicted to himself that he should have to go away without

saying a word to her in private. He told her first of Christy's
arrival and then of his own engagement with her father; and he

was comforted by seeing that this latter news touched her keenly.
She said hurriedly, "I am so glad," and then bent over her writing

to hinder any one from noticing her face. But here was a subject
which Mrs. Farebrother could not let pass.

"You don't mean, my dear Miss Garth, that you are glad to hear
of a young man giving up the Church for which he was educated:

you only mean that things being so, you are glad that he should be
under an excellent man like your father."

"No, really, Mrs. Farebrother, I am glad of both, I fear,"
said Mary, cleverly getting rid of one rebellious tear.

"I have a dreadfully" target="_blank" title="ad.可怕地；糟透地">dreadfullysecular mind. I never liked any clergyman
except the Vicar of Wakefield and Mr. Farebrother."

"Now why, my dear?" said Mrs. Farebrother, pausing on her large
wooden knitting-needles and looking at Mary. "You have always

a good reason for your opinions, but this astonishes me.
Of course I put out of the question those who preach new doctrine.

But why should you dislike clergymen?"
"Oh dear," said Mary, her face breaking into merriment as she

seemed to consider a moment, "I don't like their neckcloths."
"Why, you don't like Camden's, then," said Miss Winifred,

in some anxiety.
"Yes, I do," said Mary. "I don't like the other clergymen's neckcloths,

because it is they who wear them."
"How very puzzling!" said Miss Noble, feeling that her own intellect

was probably deficient.
"My dear, you are joking. You would have better reasons

than these for slighting so respectable a class of men,"
said Mrs. Farebrother, majestically.

"Miss Garth has such severe notions of what people should be that it
is difficult to satisfy her," said Fred.

"Well, I am glad at least that she makes an exception in favor
of my son," said the old lady.

Mary was wondering at Fred's piqued tone, when Mr. Farebrother came
in and had to hear the news about the engagement under Mr. Garth.

At the end he said with quiet satisfaction, "THAT is right;"
and then bent to look at Mary's labels and praise her writing" target="_blank" title="n.笔迹；书法">handwriting.

Fred felt horriblyjealous--was glad, of course, that Mr. Farebrother
was so estimable, but wished that he had been ugly and fat as men

at forty sometimes are. It was clear what the end would be,
since Mary openly placed Farebrother above everybody, and these

women were all evidently encouraging the affair. He, was feeling