The Rector of St. Marks

"Engaged to Lucy Harcourt? I never could have believed it. He's right

in saying that she is far more suitable for me than him." Thornton

exclaimed, dashing aside the letter and feeling conscious of a pang as

he remembered the bright, airy little beauty in whom he had once been

strongly interested, even if he did call her frivolous and ridicule

her childish ways.

She was frivolous, too much so, by far, to be a clergyman's wife, and

for a full half hour Thornton paced up and down the room, meditating

on Arthur's choice and wondering how upon earth it ever happened.