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LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. AND W. RIDER,

BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

A SAFE INVESTMENT. By Christina G. Rossetti .

By W. Chatterton Dix

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ÇA ET LA, FROM CAEN TO ABBEVILLE. By the Rev. Mackenzie E. C.

Walcott, B.D., F.S.A.

CHARLES LAMB. By the Rev. J. A.

Carr, A.B.

CHILD'S NOTIONS ABOUT SUNDAY. By Rev. I. R. Vernon, M.A.
CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS ON HANDEL'S SACRED ORATORIO. By J.
Warrington Haward

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EPIPHANY WITH THE POETS. By Alexander H. Grant, M.A.

FRENCH NOTIONS OF ENGLAND AND THE ENGLISH. By the Rev.
W. L. Blackley, M.A.

HOSTILITY OF THE KING OF ABYSSINIA TOWARDS ENGLAND. By

J. A. St. John Blythe

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MORAL BLISTERS. By Sophie F. F. Veitch

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206

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MAY IN SEPTEMBER

262

102

MODERN SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE. By P. B. B.

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OUR PERILS AND OUR POOR BENEFICES. By the Rev. J. H.

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By Rev. B. W. Savile,

307, 426

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Churchman's Shilling Dagazine

& FAMILY GREASURY.

THE OLD STORY.

CHAPTER XXII.

MIGRATION.

It was the night before the journey; and the quiet vicarage was, as Nora expressed it, turned upside down. The hall was full of travelling trunks and boxes, umbrellas and carpet bags, rugs and wrappers; the rooms were all in disorder, more or less; and though the children were in bed, there was noise of running feet and eager hurrying tongues on the staircases and in the passages at that hour an unwonted noise in the wellgoverned little household.

Nurse had already taken her departure for the seaside village recommended by the doctor-which was far off, on a bay of the Norfolk coast, carrying with her a part of the luggage; and she was to get the lodgings prepared for her mistress's arrival.

Margaret was to start early in the morning, under the guardianship of her father and Dr. Harris, with-not Clare only, but Stuart, Nora, baby Bertie, and Elizabeth. The gentlemen were to return to Danesfield at the expiration of a fortnight; and she, with the rest of the party in charge, was to stay, if necessary, through the summer months.

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It was quite late. The glimmering moonlight lay on the thresholds of the open doors, and the soft night-wind swept along the chequered pavement and groined roof of the hall, bearing now and then a stray petal from the fruit-trees, or a sweet breath from the lilies that grew in the churchyard. Margaret, with a tired look on her face, went into her father's study, to do her last piece of work-to arrange his books and papers in the order he would like them to be left. A shaded reading-lamp stood near his empty chair, flinging a circle of powerful light on the table and its litters. The shadows pressed up close to this yellow ring; and behind them, near the open window, the moonlight lay like a white mist upon the carpet. Framed in the window was an exquisite little picture-the grassy churchyard, and the gleaming white gravestones, the old church tower, standing grey and grim, and the arms of the yew trees stretched out around it, pencilled darkly and delicately upon the pearly green sky. As she put her head out there came a faint vibration through the cool air-an echo of the organ and the choristers' voices from the chancel of the church. They were practising late to-night. Other sounds there were, too, which jarred with this a little, the hum and clatter in the kitchen, where the servants where still preparing and packing provisions; the ring of sharp hammer-strokes in the hall, where John was nailing a direction card on the lid of a deal case; the echo of exultant screams and riotous laughter in the nursery above, where Nora and Stuart, too excited to sleep, were carrying on a desperate warfare with the pillows and bolsters; and now and then the sound of a low, hacking cough in her own bedroom, where little Clare was lying. And by and by, when she had finished her work at the table, and was sauntering out of the yellow circle, through the shadows into the moonlight, yet another sound came to her quick ears-the sound of voices in the garden, engaged in a low but animated conversation. They were women's voicesthe voices of Elizabeth and Grace's maid, Leonie. Margaret put up her hands for the purpose of shutting the window sharply and giving them notice of her near neighbourhood; but she dropped them again with a sudden start, and mechanically bent her head to listen. "Major Lennox and Lady Dalrymple!" What was Elizabeth talking about?

"He told me he never saw anybody so free and easy together as Major Lennox and Lady Dalrymple. He said she was fit to kiss the ground he trod on-that he did; and of course he had

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