I should think it is fully four years since I went to see her in the Middle Lot." The pastor's wife had listened with astonishment to this speech, which sounded very reproachful.

Now she said soothingly: "But, 'Lizebeth, I should hope that you do not think that I would oppose your going to Marianne or anywhere else; or that I ever have done so.

Do go as soon as you feel like it." "Just as if nothing had to be done, and as if I were and had been on a visit in the parsonage at Upper Wood for fifty years and more," was the answer.

"No, no, I know what has to be done if no one else does.

I can wait until Sunday afternoon; that is a time when the likes of me may go out, and if it suits the lady then, then I go, and shall not stay away very long.