She went into the house knowing that she must at once seek her mother but she allowed herself first to remain for some half—­hour in her own bedroom, preparing the words that she would use.  The interview she knew would be difficult—­much more difficult than it would have been before her last walk with Mr. Saul; and the worst of it was that she could not quite make up her mind as to what it was that she wished to say.  She waited till she could hear her mother’s step on the stairs.  At last Mrs. Clavering came up to dress, and then Fanny, following her quickly into her bedroom, abruptly began: 

“Mamma,” she said, “I want to speak to you very much.”

“Well, my dear?”

“But you mustn’t be in a hurry, mamma.”  Mrs. Clavering looked at her watch, and declaring that it still wanted three-quarters of an hour to dinner, promised that she would not be very much in a hurry.

“Mamma, Mr. Saul has been speaking to me again.

“Has he, my dear?  You cannot, of course, help it if he chooses to speak to you, but he ought to know that it is very foolish.  It must end in his having to leave us.”

“That is what he says, mamma.  He says he must go away unless—­”

“Unless what?”

“Unless I will consent that he shall remain here as—­”

“As your accepted lover.  Is that it, Fanny?”

“Yes, mamma.”

“Then he must go, I suppose.  What else can any of us say?  I shall be sorry both for his sake and for your papa’s.”  Mrs. Clavering, as she said this, looked at her daughter, and saw at once that this edict on her part did not settle the difficulty.  There was that in Fanny’s face which showed trouble and the necessity of further explanation.  “Is not that what you think yourself my dear?” Mrs. Clavering asked.

“I should be very sorry if he had to leave the parish on my account.”

“We all shall feel that, dearest; but what can we do?  I presume you don’t wish him to remain as your lover?”

“I don’t know, mamma,” said Fanny.

It was then as Mrs. Clavering had feared.  Indeed, from the first word that Fanny had spoken on the present occasion, she had almost been sure of the facts, as they now were.  To her father it would appear wonderful that his daughter should have come to love such a man as Mr. Saul, but Mrs. Clavering knew better than he how far perseverance will go with women—­perseverance joined with high mental capacity, and with high spirit to back it.  She was grieved but not surprised, and would at once have accepted the idea of Mr. Saul becoming her son-in-law, had not the poverty of the man been so much against him.  “Do you mean, my dear, that you wish him to remain here after what he has said to you?  That would be tantamount to accepting him.  You understand that, Fanny; eh, dear?”

“I suppose it would, mamma.”

“And is that what you mean?  Come, dearest, tell me the whole of it.  What have you said to him yourself?  What has he been led to think from the answer you have given him to-day?”