Things went on in Gower Street for three or four weeks in the same way, and then Susanna was fetched home from Littlebath. Miss Mackenzie would have gone down herself but that she was averse¹ to see Mr Maguire. She therefore kept on her Littlebath lodgings², though Mrs Tom said much to her of the wasteful³ extravagance in doing so. It was at last settled that Mr Rubb should go down to Littlebath and bring Susanna back with him; and this he did, not at all to that young lady's satisfaction. It was understood that Susanna did not leave the school, at which she had lately been received as a boarder; but the holidays had come, and it was thought well that she should see her father. During this time Miss Mackenzie received two letters from Mr Maguire. In the first he pleaded hard for an answer to his offer. He had, he said, now relinquished⁴ his curacy, having found the interference of that terrible woman to be unendurable. He had left his curacy, and was at present without employment. Under such circumstances, "his Margaret" would understand how imperative⁵ it was that he should receive an answer. A curacy, or, rather, a small incumbency⁶, had offered itself among the mines in Cornwall; but he could not think of accepting this till he should know what "his Margaret" might say to it.