there was little of the undeveloped girl, varying from day to day like an
April sky, careless as to which way her own character is tending. So the
two young people sat with their elders, and both relished the company
they were thus prematurely thrown into. Mr. Corbet talked as much as
either of the other two gentlemen; opposing and disputing on any side, as
if to find out how much he could urge against received opinions. Ellinor
sat silent; her dark eyes flashing from time to time in vehement
interest--sometimes in vehement indignation if Mr. Corbet, riding a-tilt
at everyone, ventured to attack her father. He saw how this course
excited her, and rather liked pursuing it in consequence; he thought it
only amused him.

Another way in which Ellinor and Mr. Corbet were thrown together
occasionally was this: Mr. Ness and Mr. Wilkins shared the same _Times_
between them; and it was Ellinor's duty to see that the paper was
regularly taken from her father's house to the parsonage. Her father
liked to dawdle over it. Until Mr. Corbet had come to live with him, Mr.
Ness had not much cared at what time it was passed on to him; but the
young man took a strong interest in all public events, and especially in
all that was said about them. He grew impatient if the paper was not
forthcoming, and would set off himself to go for it, sometimes meeting
the penitent breathless Ellinor in the long lane which led from Hamley to
Mr. Wilkins's house. At first he used to receive her eager "Oh! I am so
sorry, Mr. Corbet, but papa has only just done with it," rather gruffly.
After a time he had the grace to tell her it did not signify; and by-and-
by he would turn back with her to give her some advice about her garden,
or her plants--for his mother and sisters were first-rate practical
gardeners, and he himself was, as he expressed it, "a capital consulting
physician for a sickly plant."