I would be the last man in the world to ridicule your scruples about duty, if this hesitation on your part arose from any such scruple.

But answer me honestly, do you not know that such is not the case ?" "I know nothing of the kind." "Ah, but I think you do.

If you persist in refusing this invitation will it not be because you are afraid of making Lady Lufton angry?
I do not know what there can be in that woman that she is able to hold both you and Lufton in leading-strings." Robarts, of course, denied the charge, and protested that he was not to be taken back to his own parsonage by any fear of Lady Lufton.

But though he made such protest with warmth, he knew that he did so ineffectually.

Sowerby only smiled, and said that the proof of the pudding was in the eating.
"What is the good of a man keeping a curate if it be not to save him from that sort of drudgery ?" he asked.
"Drudgery! If I were a drudge how could I be here to-day ?" "Well, Robarts, look here.