"Mr Mawley is always coming here, too!" "True, my dear," said her mother; "still there are comings and comings.
You may depend he only goes there so often _for a purpose_! Indeed, I asked Mrs Clyde whether there was not something in it only yesterday, and she smiled and said nothing; and, if _that_ isn't proof," she concluded, triumphantly, "I don't know _what_ is!" Bessie remained silent, but her sister said impulsively, "I don't believe it, ma--not what you say, but about Minnie Clyde's engagement.
Mr Mawley's going there proves nothing, as Bessie said; and, as for Mrs Clyde, I believe she would smile in that graceful way of hers--I hate fine people!--and say nothing if you told her that her house was on fire! The curate is always gadding about, and Minnie is a pretty girl; so, of course, he likes to go there and see her; but, I know, that she does not care twopence for him." "Ah, you may say so, my dear; but _I_ know better.

She would jump to have him.

All girls like handsome young clergymen, as I know to my cost.

Ah, Mr Lorton," went on Lady Dasher, with a sad expressive shake of her head, "marriage is a sad lottery, a sad lottery! I once thought of marrying into the church, too, when my poor dear papa was alive.
Perhaps it would have been a happier lot for me if I had done so! He was such a dear, nice clergyman, and looked so well in his canonicals-- such a truly evangelical minister! I could listen to his sermons for hours without feeling the slightest fatigue!" "Thank goodness, then, he wasn't our papa!" exclaimed the saucy Seraphine.

"I'm certain that _I_ wouldn't have been able to listen to his sermons so long!" "Ah, my dear," groaned her mother at her levity, "always frivolous, Seraphine! I'm afraid you will never marry a pious, holy man, as I would wish!" "Not if I know it, ma!" she retorted, so heartily that both her sister Bessie and I--in spite of my anxiety about Min--could not but join in her catching laughter.