Where nothing _can_ be known, I prefer not to intrude." A pause followed.

At length said the rector, "You are so good a fellow, Faber, I wish you were better.

When will you come and dine with me ?" "Soon, I hope," answered the surgeon, "but I am too busy at present.

For all her sweet ways and looks, the spring is not friendly to man, and my work is to wage war with nature." A second pause followed.

The rector would gladly have said something, but nothing would come.
"By the by," he said at length, "I thought I saw you pass the gate--let me see--on Monday: why did you not look in ?" "I hadn't a moment's time.