And, to talk of other
things, I suspect that you and Milly will probably see Ilbury at Bartram;
for I think he likes you very much.'
_You_; did she mean _both_, or only me?
So our pleasant visit was over. Milly's good little curate had been much
thrown in her way by our deep and dangerous cousin Monica. He was most
laudably steady; and his flirtation advanced upon the field of theology,
where, happily, Milly's little reading had been concentrated. A mild and
earnest interest in poor, pretty Milly's orthodoxy was the leading feature
of his case; and I was highly amused at her references to me, when we had
retired at night, upon the points which she had disputed with him, and
her anxious reports of their low-toned conferences, carried on upon a
sequestered ottoman, where he patted and stroked his crossed leg, as he
smiled tenderly and shook his head at her questionable doctrine. Milly's
reverence for her instructor, and his admiration, grew daily; and he was
known among us as Milly's confessor.
He took luncheon with us on the day of our departure, and with an adroit
privacy, which in a layman would have been sly, presented her, in right of
his holy calling, with a little book, the binding of which was mediaeval
and costly, and whose letter-press dealt in a way which he commended,
with some points on which she was not satisfactory; and she found on the
fly-leaf this little inscription:--'Presented to Miss Millicent Ruthyn by
an earnest well-wisher, 1st December 1844.
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