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reverend friend arrived; and, on being announced, was welcomed with warmth by all, save Tom, who was privately engaged in delivering a deeply indignant soliloquy. Even the features of Mrs. Delolme were relaxed when the reverend gentleman appeared; for all the virtues he possessed, with all those which he could be imagined to possess, had been by Aunt Eleanor duly set forth.

There was, however, one fact which puzzled him exceedingly: and that was, the absence of all anxiety on the part of Aunt Eleanor to have a private conference. He couldn't understand it. He had fancied that her anxiety to converse with him privately would have been most intense!—instead of which, he found that even the most favourable opportunities were lost, and that, in fact, she was not at all anxious about the matter. He was not, it is true, displeased with this: it didn't in the slightest degree distress him: it, on the contrary, tended to convince him, that the stout individual in question, was one whom she really didn't care much about; but he did think it strange—exceedingly strange—that after having summoned him to London, expressly in crder to consult him on the subject, she should not in any manner, either directly or indirectly, allude to it. It was true she might be waiting until he had seen this stout gentleman: certainly this struck him as being extremely probable: it moreover struck him, that as bulk was the point at issue, he couldn't form anything like a just judgment upon that point, until he had seen him: still, although these might be the real causes of her silence, and although he thought it likely that he should meet him at dinner—he could not but feel—notwithstanding the delicacy of the subject—that a few brief preliminary observations would be agreeable, and, by no means whatever, incorrect.

In the course of the morning, Mrs. Delolme expressed an earnest desire to introduce him to Mr. Terre, and as the reverend gentleman—conceiving that he was in reality the man who had proposed—equally anxious for the introduction, the carriage was immediately ordered, and they went.

He now thought he saw clearly how the case stood: that this great gun was the stout individual—that Mrs. Delolme knew all about it—and that she had been deputed by Aunt Eleanor to manage the introduction, in order that he might at once be able to pass judgment upon the point at issue.

Instead, however, of finding Mr. Terre the stout person he had imagined, he found him particularly thin, which at once upset all his ideas on the subject of his being the man, and tended to remove those prejudices against him, which he had almost involuntarily inspired.

In bringing these two reverend persons together, Mrs. Delolme—perhaps naturally—anticipated a high intellectual treat; but, as this anticipation was not based upon any profound knowledge of the men, she was doomed to experience disappointment. They were both superficial, and therefore both cautious. They were afraid of each other, and knowing that there exists much virtue in silence-seeing that it leaves an immense amount of eloquence, genius, tact, and erudition, to be imagined—prudence prompted them both to avoid every subject upon which they conceived a discussion might arise.