Mrs.Bute could not disguise from herself the fact that none of her party could so contribute to the pleasures of the town-bred lady.

"My girls' singing, after that little odious governess's, I know is unbearable," the candid Rector's wife owned to herself.

"She always used to go to sleep when Martha and Louisa played their duets.

Jim's stiff college manners and poor dear Bute's talk about his dogs and horses always annoyed her.

If I took her to the Rectory, she would grow angry with us all, and fly, I know she would; and might fall into that horrid Rawdon's clutches again, and be the victim of that little viper of a Sharp.