Mrs.Joyce sits silent, and looks at Vance, and sympathizes with him.
Mr.Blyth is soon heard again in the hall, talking at a prodigious rate, without one audible word of answer proceeding from any other voice.

The door of the dining-room, which has swung to, is suddenly pushed open, jostling the outraged Vance, who stands near it, into such a miserably undignified position flat against the wall, that the young ladies begin to titter behind their handkerchiefs as they look at him.

Valentine enters, leading in Mrs.Peckover and the deaf and dumb child, with such an air of supreme happiness, that he looks absolutely handsome for the moment.

The rector, who is, in the best and noblest sense of the word, a gentleman, receives Mrs.Peckover as politely and cordially as he would have received the best lady in Rubbleford.

Mrs.Joyce comes forward with him, very kind too, but a little reserved in her manner, nevertheless; being possibly apprehensive that any woman connected with the circus must be tainted with some slight flavor of Miss Florinda Beverley.