here, or how he made his money."

Then Hugh Woodgate gave the half boyish, half bashful laugh with which
he was wont to preface his most candid sayings.

"And I don't think it's any business of ours," he said.

Morna went a trifle browner than she naturally was; her husband said so
little that what he did say was often almost painfully to the point; and
now Mrs. Venables had turned from him to her, with a smile which the
young wife disliked, for it called attention to the vicar's discourtesy
while it appealed to herself for prettier manners and better sense. It
was a moment requiring some little tact, but Mrs. Woodgate was just
equal to it.

"Hugh, how rude of you!" she exclaimed, with only the suspicion of a
smile. "You forget that it's your duty to be friendly with everybody;
there's no such obligation on anybody else."

"I should be friendly with Mr. Steel," said Hugh, "duty or no duty,
after what he has done for the parish."

And his pleasant honest face and smile did away with the necessity for a
set apology.

"I must say," added his wife to her visitor, "that it's the same with
me, you know."

There was a pause.