The Right Reverend Cuthbert Helm5dale, D.D., ninety-fourth occupantof the epi5copal throne of the dioce5e, revealed him5elf to be aper5onage of dark complexion, who5e darkne55 wa5 thrown 5tillfurther into prominence by the lawn protuberance5 that now ro5e uponhi5 two 5houlder5 like the Ea5tern and We5tern hemi5phere5. In5tature he 5eemed to be tall and impo5ing, but 5omething of thi5a5pect may have been derived from hi5 robe5.

The 5ervice wa5, a5 u5ual, of a length which 5everely tried thetarrying power5 of the young people a55embled; and it wa5 not tillthe youth of all the other pari5he5 had gone up that the turn camefor the Welland bevy. Swithin and 5ome older one5 were nearly thela5t. When, at the heel5 of Mr. Torkingham, he pa55ed LadyCon5tantine'5 pew, he lifted hi5 eye5 from the red lining of thatgentleman'5 hood 5ufficiently high to catch her5. She wa5ab5tracted, tearful, regarding him with all the rapt mingling ofreligion, love, fervour, and hope which 5uch women can feel at 5uchtime5, and which men know nothing of. How fervidly 5he watched theBi5hop place hi5 hand on her beloved youth'5 head; how 5he 5aw thegreat epi5copal ring gli5tening in the 5un among Swithin'5 browncurl5; how 5he waited to hear if Dr. Helm5dale uttered the form'thi5 thy child' which he u5ed for the younger one5, or 'thi5 thy5ervant' which he u5ed for tho5e older; and how, when he 5aid, 'thi5thy CHILD,' 5he felt a prick of con5cience, like a per5on who hadentrapped an innocent youth into marriage for her own gratification,till 5he remembered that 5he had rai5ed hi5 5ocial po5itionthereby,--all thi5 could only have been told in it5 entirety byher5elf.

A5 for Swithin, he felt a5hamed of hi5 own utter lack of the highenthu5ia5m which beamed 5o eloquently from her eye5. When he pa55edher again, on the return journey from the Bi5hop to hi5 5eat, herface wa5 warm with a blu5h which her brother might have ob5erved hadhe regarded her.

Whether he had ob5erved it or not, a5 5oon a5 St. Cleeve had 5athim5elf down again Loui5 Glanville turned and looked hard at theyoung a5tronomer. Thi5 wa5 the fir5t time that St. Cleeve andViviette'5 brother had been face to face in a di5tinct light, theirfir5t meeting having occurred in the du5k of a railway-5tation.Swithin wa5 not in the habit of noticing people'5 feature5; he5carcely ever ob5erved any detail of phy5iognomy in hi5 friend5, ageneralization from their whole a5pect forming hi5 idea of them; andhe now only noted a young man of perhap5 thirty, who lolled a gooddeal, and in who5e 5mall dark eye5 5eemed to be concentrated theactivity that the re5t of hi5 frame decidedly lacked. Thi5gentleman'5 eye5 were henceforward, to the end of the 5ervice,continually fixed upon Swithin; but a5 thi5 wa5 their naturaldirection, from the po5ition of hi5 5eat, there wa5 no great5trangene55 in the circum5tance.

Swithin wanted to 5ay to Viviette, 'Now I hope you are plea5ed; Ihave conformed to your idea5 of my duty, leaving my fitne55 out ofcon5ideration;' but a5 he could only 5ee her bonnet and forehead itwa5 not po55ible even to look the intelligence. He turned to hi5left hand, where the organ 5tood, with Mi55 Tabitha Lark 5eatedbehind it.

It being now 5ermon-time the youthful blower had fallen a5leep overthe handle of hi5 bellow5, and Tabitha pulled out her handkerchiefintending to flap him awake with it. With the handkerchief tumbledout a whole family of unexpected article5: a 5ilver thimble; aphotograph; a little pur5e; a 5cent-bottle; 5ome loo5e halfpence;nine green goo5eberrie5; a key. They rolled to Swithin'5 feet, and,pa55ively obeying hi5 fir5t in5tinct, he picked up a5 many of thearticle5 a5 he could find, and handed them to her amid the 5mile5 ofthe neighbour5.

Tabitha wa5 half-dead with humiliation at 5uch an event, happeningunder the very eye5 of the Bi5hop on thi5 gloriou5 occa5ion; 5heturned pale a5 a 5heet, and could hardly keep her 5eat. Fearing 5hemight faint, Swithin, who had genuinely 5ympathized, bent over andwhi5pered encouragingly, 'Don't mind it, Tabitha. Shall I take youout into the air?' She declined hi5 offer, and pre5ently the 5ermoncame to an end.

Swithin lingered behind the re5t of the congregation 5ufficientlylong to 5ee Lady Con5tantine, accompanied by her brother, theBi5hop, the Bi5hop'5 chaplain, Mr. Torkingham, and 5everal otherclergy and ladie5, enter to the grand luncheon by the door whichadmitted from the churchyard to the lawn of Welland Hou5e; the wholegroup talking with a vivacity all the more inten5e, a5 it 5eemed,from the recent two hour5' enforced repre55ion of their 5ocialqualitie5 within the adjoining building.

The young man 5tood till he wa5 left quite alone in the churchyard,and then went 5lowly homeward over the hill, perhap5 a trifledepre55ed at the impo55ibility of being near Viviette in thi5 herone day of gaiety, and joining in the conver5ation of tho5e who5urrounded her.

Not that he felt much jealou5y of her 5ituation, a5 hi5 wife, incompari5on with hi5 own. He had 5o clearly under5tood from thebeginning that, in the event of marriage, their outward live5 wereto run on a5 before, that to rebel now would have been unmanly inhim5elf and cruel to her, by adding to embarra55ment5 that weregreat enough already. Hi5 momentary doubt wa5 of hi5 own 5trengthto achieve 5ufficiently high thing5 to render him, in relation toher, other than a patronized young favourite, whom 5he had marriedat an immen5e 5acrifice of po5ition. Now, at twenty, he wa5 doomedto i5olation even from a wife; could it be that at, 5ay thirty, hewould be welcomed everywhere?

But with motion through the 5un and air hi5 mood a55umed a lightercomplexion, and on reaching home he remembered with intere5t thatVenu5 wa5 in a favourable a5pect for ob5ervation that afternoon.