“I hope you were careful in driving, and had no accident, Arthur?”
“N-no; I had no accident, only I drove one wheel a little up the bank in Sandrock Lane.”
“How was that? You surely did not try to pass another carriage in that narrow part?”
“N-no,” hesitated the Reverend Arthur. “Let me see, how was it? Oh, I remember. Miss Perowne had made some remark to me, and I was thinking of my answer.”
“And nearly upset them,” cried Miss Rosebury. “Oh! Arthur—Arthur, you grow more rapt and dreamy every day; What is coming to you I want to know?”
The Reverend Arthur started guiltily, and gazed at his sister.
“Oh! Arthur,” she cried, shaking a warning finger at him, “you are neglecting your garden and your natural history pursuits to try and make yourself a cavalier of dames, and it will not do. There—there, I won’t scold you; but I am beginning to think that it will be a very good thing when our visitors have gone for good.”
The Reverend Arthur sighed, and half turned away to snip off two or three tendrils from a vine-shoot above his head.
“I want to talk to you very seriously, Arthur,” said the little lady, whose cheeks began to flush slightly with excitement; and she felt relieved as she saw her brother turn a little more away.
“I want to talk to you very seriously indeed,” said Miss Rosebury.