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"Is there anything to be read aloud?" presently asked Alick

"You have not by chance got 'Frae?'"

"I wish I had I did pick up 'Silas Marner,' at a station, thinking you

lanced at Rachel, who had, he suspected, thought

his purchase an act of weakness "Have youof the sort since you were here last;" then

turning to Rachel, "Alick indulges ood curate

had rather read the catalogue of a sale any day than meddle with one,

and I can't set on "

"We will get 'Framley,'" said Alick

"Bessie has it She read

parson bent on pleasing hiht it would not edify Will Walker But, no doubt, you have read it

long ago"

"No," said Rachel; and so such

empty employments Indeed, she was presently much interested in the

admirable portraiture of "Silas Marner," and still more by the keen,

vivid enjoy, displayed by a man who

heard works of fiction so rarely that they were always fresh to him, and