seen animalcula whirling in a drop of water through the glass of a microscope. Next moment she felt, but scarcely saw, her mother by her side. Lady Maud passed her soft arm round her child's neck, and, kissing her lips and her eyes, said,

"Dearest, do not tremble so ! All is well. Be happy!" Placing her daughter's arm in hers, she led her back to the hall, and, drawing her towards Nugent, gave him her hand, and, with a winning smile, said

"Take her, Mr. Nugent, and love her dearly, for she deserves it!"

Lady Maud left them together, and returned to her husband's apartment. On the landing she paused for a second, clasped her hands together, and seemed to be silently asking herself some question, for which she found it difficult to find a satisfactory reply. But it was but for a second, and Lady Maud passed upstairs with perfect serenity of manner.

CHAPTER XII.

BEFORE MARRIAGE.

"BUT, Lovell, my good friend, I assure you it is not lawful. You have not the power. You will be pulled up before the bishop!" exclaimed Nugent, a few days previous to his marriage, whilst walking up and down with Lovell upon the gravel footpath in front of the village church. "You will be put to horrible expense, and finally ejected from your living."

"Well," rejoined Lovell, "all I can say is, that I know no better remedy for the evils prevalent in our rural districts. An interdict would bring people to their senses. Smithers is strongly of that opinion. Only fancy! The church bells mute. The doors of the sacred edifice closed Sunday after Sunday. The dead consigned to their unhallowed graves in solemn silence. The sick man left in loneliness. The priest rarely, if ever, visible, and then seen passing hurriedly by, with eyes fixed upon the ground, as one who hastens through some plague-infected district. would be most impressive, I may say awful."

It

"But then Mr. Epps, the Independent minister, would have it all his own way

“Only for a time. A schismatic is but a quack doctor, after all. His patients would feel it was not the real thing. They would yearn for the church. They would begin to appreciate her value. They would come to the church doors weeping and kneeling and imploring me to receive them, and to withdraw the ban of excommunication from the parish!"

"But if they don't value the church now, they never will,” said Nugent. "You must teach them to be Churchmen and Christians, before you think to punish them by depriving them of Christian privileges."

"They never will care for the blessings they enjoy till they are stripped of them, and left in heathen destitution."

"I tell you what, Lovell," rejoined Nugent; "before you act the part of an ecclesiastical Coriolanus, and exclaim to your congregation, 'I banish you'—before you lay us under the ban, I beg you will marry Gertrude and me."

"To be sure I will!" cried Lovell, gaily, and suddenly throwing off the monastic gloom which had for the moment darkened his handsome countenance" to be sure I will! When is it to be?"

"Next Tuesday; and there's to be a grand breakfast at Beaumont House. Rather a bore the breakfast, but it can't be helped. Lady Maud likes it. We start then for a tour in Wales. Of course you will come to the breakfast?"

"I think not. It seems mixing up the priest too much with the secular part of the affair."

"Oh! but you know religion ought not to be out of place anywhere. You must come, just to lend your sanction, your countenance, to the festivity; which, after all, is quite allowable. Indeed, it has scriptural warrant."

"Would it do if I stood a little apart from the guests, looking on with mildness, but with a certain gravity?"

"Forgive me- -but you would look so very like a waiter!" "That is true," admitted Lovell, with a perplexed air. "Well, I will sit down, but abstain from eating and drinking."

"Don't make any resolutions-but come."

Here the church bell suddenly began to toll for evening prayer, which Lovell said daily. The loud, but not unmelo. dious clang awakened the rooks that were clustering in the

neighbouring elms, and drove them forth cawing vociferously, as if summoning their brethren to church. Whilst the dusty traveller in the road at the bottom of the hill stopped to listen, resting his pack against a gate, and letting his thoughts run back to his childish days, when he sauntered to church holding his mother's hand some sunny Sabbath afternoon, with the blue sky overhead, and all the fields quiet and still. The poor sick girl, too, at the white cottage the other side of the valley, heard the sounds come sweetly and faintly in through the open window, cheering her heavy heart, and telling her that prayer-and prayer for her own self toowas going up to heaven from the old church yonder; and she made a sign for her mother to take down the prayer-book, and read and pray with her.

Nugent lingered a moment, then turned to leave the churchyard. "I should like to stay the service," he said; "but I have an appointment with my bailiff the other side of Copley Hill. Good-day, Lovell; don't forget Tuesday." "Good-bye, Mr. Nugent. Never fear."

And the two parted. Nugent really wished to remain, but to break an appointment was with him a serious infraction of morality. Certainly, a half-hour spent in the sober but earnest devotions of the Church of England has a salutary influence on the mind, takes us out of the thick atmosphere of the world, brings the unseen with a solemn force to bear upon the heart and conscience, and more especially on the eve of any exciting event must it be good for us to be for a little while in the house of God.

We must now, however, take our readers to the Manor House Farm, and ascertain what preparations Nugent was making for the reception of his young bride.

An unusual stir and excitement prevailed within the precincts of that residence. First of all, there was a general dusting and cleansing of the whole house, from top to bottom, under the auspices of Mrs. Finchley. Prostrate charwomen scrubbed the floors. A devoted housemaid, at the peril of her neck, cleaned the outside of the windows twenty feet from the ground. A black object, generally supposed to be the chimney-sweep, emerged from the tops of each chimney in succession, screaming vociferously, to the intense horror and perplexity of the younger children of the village. Then sundry individuals commenced beating carpets on the lawn with frantic enthusiasm. Long-hoarded treasures in the upholstery

line were dragged forth to be aired and renovated, or perchance ruthlessly discarded for ever. A set of damask bedcurtains, which looked as if they could stand upright of themselves; a piece of ancient tapestry, used for a counterpane, on which the figure of Blondel the troubadour could be faintly traced, sprawling on his back and embracing a dilapidated guitar, whilst the toe of the lion-hearted king was perceptible at the corner of the tapestry, the remainder of the design having been destroyed. Also a gorgeous dressing-gown, formerly belonging to Nugent's great-grandfather, so redolent of camphor and other preservatives as to set at defiance moths of the hardiest constitution and most adventurous disposition. Then there was a table-cloth on which a scene from Scripture was delineated; but whether the deluge or the passage of the Jordan remained a matter of traditional controversy in the family. There was also a fragment of a black silk cassock, supposed to have belonged to a Puritan divine in Charles the First's reign, which was by no means overlooked by Mrs. Finchley; but, having been carefully suspended upon a hollyhock to air, fluttered wildly in the wind like an impatient

scarecrow.

An old cabinet or two was warming itself in the sun. Five or six quaint-looking chairs had walked out to take the air. An ancient harpsichord with a fractured leg had apparently insisted on being one of the party; it was decidedly an invalid, and, on its keys being touched, emitted an incóherent squall like half a dozen canaries suffering from sore throat. Then there was linen and glass in abundance; and worm-eaten books and mildewed prints, and pictures half effaced, causing disputes as to which was top or bottom. Fragments of carved oak and broken furniture-the débris of the old mansion destroyed by fire-lay about in different directions. Mrs. Finchley herself flitted to and fro, dusting here, scolding there; now making pencil comments on a faded sheet of paper containing an inventory of the treasures around her; now hurrying in search of some forgotten article, and drawing it forth upon the lawn, or into the entrance-hall of the house.

In the meantime, the proprietor of all these venerable relics of bygone grandeur, was engaged in serious conference with a visitor, shrouded in the peaceful gloom of the library.

That visitor was a thin individual dressed in black, with a limp white handkerchief round his throat. He had short red

air, and eyes of a light blue. His voice was low and soothing; and, when he addressed you, he almost closed the aforesaid eyes, allowing the eyelids to droop in the most languishing fashion possible. With all that, there was a gentle dogmatism in his way of proceeding-an authoritative though mild obstinacy difficult to resist. Mr. Lamb, for such was his name, was a furnishing upholsterer from He did a little, moreover, in the designing and architectural line, and was much consulted by the neighbouring gentry and clergy when any building or decoration of churches was going forward. Lovell had taken Nugent aside, and with some earnestness exhorted him, if he meditated making any improvements at the Manor Farm, to consult Lamb. "Lamb has an eye for the picturesque: Lamb is quite at home in mediæval architecture: Lamb takes a poetic view of things: Lamb has a pure taste. Pugin once looked in at Lamb's shop, and gave him, as a token of his approbation, a design for an early English three-pronged toasting-fork. You must consult Lamb!" Accordingly, the first market-day Nugent "looked in at Lamb's shop ;" and hence it came about that Mr. Lamb was now standing in a pleasant, quaint old room, with a broad mullioned window looking into a retired part of the lawn. It had been formerly the best bedroom, but was now used as a cheese-room. Nugent respectfully listened to all that he had

to say.

66

"My dear sir," Mr. Lamb was observing, we can make something of this room. We really can. It's a feature!" And, so saying, Mr. Lamb took a foot-rule from his pocket, and lightly made one or two measurements of the dimensions of the apartment.

"Excuse me, Mr. Nugent, but may I presume to ask-you will excuse the liberty, I am sure—may I ask if you celebrate family prayer, domestic liturgy, or any of that kind of thing?"

"Certainly," answered Nugent, rather stiffly.

"Then allow me to suggest that we should convert this apartment into the chapel-the oratory. A few alterations would suffice. Two or three carved oak benches with floriated poppyheads and patent air-cushions; a lectern of rich decorated style; a fald-stool; the altar of wood or stone-that of course depends on your theological bias; and I think there would be room for a piscina and a credence table in that corner of the room-I think so-but I will measure

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