 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 secular 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 favour 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 handwriting. Fred felt horribly jealous - 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 sure
