"I think I'll have the gig," said the rector.
"My dear Charles," pleaded his sister, "surely that will be foolish. She can't hurt you."
"I don't know that," said the rector. "I think she has hurt me very much already. I shouldn't know how to talk to her."
"You may be sure that Frederic means to go on with it," said Mrs. Lovel.
"It would have been better for Frederic if he had never seen her," said the rector; "and I'm sure it would have been better for me."
But he consented at last, and he himself handed Lady Anna into the carriage. Mrs. Lovel accompanied them, but Aunt Julia made her farewells in the rectory drawing-room. She managed to get the girl to herself for a moment or two, and thus she spoke to her. "I need not tell you that, for yourself, my dear, I like you very much."
"Oh, thank you, Miss Lovel."
"I have heartily wished that you might be our Frederic's wife."
"It can never be," said Lady Anna.
"I won't give up all hope. I don't pretend to understand what there is amiss between you and Frederic, but I won't give it up. If it is to be so, I hope that you and I may be loving friends till I die. Give me a kiss, my dear." Lady Anna, whose eyes were suffused with tears, threw herself into the arms of the elder lady and embraced her.