confidence and self-possession. Taking a book and a small case from a side-table, he put on his overcoat and went out. A moment, and the dense fog swallowed him up, and with him the tattered bundle of rags, which had a husband, and very likely had nothing else in the world.

Tamplin's Rents not affecting us, we may skip a few hours, and then go westward with him as far as the Temple, which in the East India Dock Road is considered very far west indeed by those who have ever heard of it. Here Lindo sought a dingy staircase in Figtree Court, and, mounting to the second floor, stopped before a door which was adorned by about a dozen names, painted in white on a black ground. He knocked loudly, and, a small boy answering his summons with great alacrity and importance, asked for Mr. Smith, and was promptly ushered into a room about nine feet square, in which, at a table covered with papers and open books, sat a small dark-complexioned man, very keen and eager in appearance, who looked up with an air of annoyance.

'Who is it, Fred?' he said impatiently, moving one of the candles, which the fog still rendered necessary, although it was high noon. 'I am engaged at present.'

'Mr. Lindo to see you, sir,' the boy announced, with a formality funny enough in a groom of the chambers about four feet high.

6

The little man's countenance instantly changed, and he jumped up grinning. 'Is it you, old boy?' he said. Sit down, old fellow ! I thought it might be my one solicitor, and it is well to be prepared, you know.'

'You are not really busy?' said the visitor, looking at him doubtfully.

9

'Well, I am and I am not,' replied Mr. Smith; and, deftly tipping aside the books, he disclosed some slips of manuscript. 'It is an article for the "CORNHILL," he continued; but whether it will ever appear there is another matter. You have come to lunch, of course? And now, what is your news?'

He was so quick and eager that he reminded people who saw him for the first time of a rat. When they came to know him better, they found that a stauncher friend than Jack Smith was not to be found in the Temple. With this he had the reputation of being a clever, clear-headed man, and his sound common sense was almost a proverb. Observing that Lindo did not answer him, he continued, 'Is anything amiss, old man?'

'Well, not quite amiss,' Lindo answered, his face flushing a

little. But the fact is '—taking the letter from his breast-pocket that I have received the offer of a living, Jack.'

Smith leapt up and clapped his friend on the shoulder. 'By Jove! old man,' he exclaimed heartily, 'I am glad of it! Very glad of it! You have had enough of that slumming. But I hope it is a better living than mine,' he continued, with a comical glance round the tiny room. 'Let us have a look! What is it? Two hundred and a house?'

Lindo handed the letter to him. It was written from Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was dated the preceding day. It ran thus:

'Dear Sir,-We are instructed by our client, the Right Honourable the Earl of Dynmore, to invite your acceptance of the living of Claversham in the county of Warwick, vacant by the death on the 15th instant of the Rev. John Williams, the late incumbent. The living, of which his lordship is the patron, is a town rectory, of the approximate value of 810l. per annum and a house. Our client is travelling in the United States, but we have the requisite authority to proceed in due form and without delay, which in this matter is prejudicial. We beg to have the pleasure of receiving your acceptance at as early a date as possible, 'And remain, dear Sir,

"Your obedient servants,
"GEARNS & BAKER.

'To the Rev. Reginald Lindo, M.A.'

The barrister read this letter with even greater surprise than the other expected, and, when he had done, looked at his companion with wondering eyes. • Claversham!' he ejaculated. "Why, I know it well!'

'Do you? Well, I believe I have heard you mention it.'

'I knew old Williams!' Jack continued, still in amaze. 'Knew him well, and heard of his death, but little thought you were likely to succeed him. My dear fellow, it is a wonderful piece of good fortune! Wonderful! I shake you by the hand! I congratulate you heartily! But how did you come to know the high and mighty earl? Unbosom yourself, my dear boy!'

'I do not know him-do not know him from Adam!' replied the young clergyman gravely.

'You don't mean it?'

'I do. I have never seen him in my life.'

Jack Smith whistled. 'Are you sure it is not a hoax?' he said, with a serious face, and in a different tone.

I think not,' the rector elect replied. Perhaps I have given you a wrong impression. I have had nothing to do with the earl; but my uncle was his tutor.'

'Oh!' said Smith slowly, 'that makes all the difference. What uncle?'

'You have heard me speak of him. He was vicar of St. Gabriel's, Aldgate. He died about a year ago-last October, I think. Lord Dynmore and he were good friends, and my uncle used often to stay at his place in Scotland. I suppose my name must have come up some time when they were talking.'

'Likely enough,' assented the lawyer. remember it, he must be one in a hundred!'

But for the earl to

'It is certainly very good of him,' Lindo replied, his cheek flushing. If it had been a small country living, and my uncle had been alive to jog his elbow, I should not have been so much surprised.'

'And you are just twenty-five!' Jack Smith observed, leaning back in his chair, and eyeing his friend with undisguised and whimsical admiration. You will be the youngest rector in the Clergy List, I should think! And Claversham! By Jove, what a berth!'

A queer expression of annoyance for a moment showed itself in Lindo's face. 'I say, Jack, stow that!' he said gently, and with a little shamefacedness. 'I mean,' he continued, looking down and smoothing the nap on his hat, 'that I do not want to regard it altogether in that way, and I do not want others to regard it so.' 'As a berth, you mean?' Jack said gravely, but with a twinkle in his eyes.

'Well, from the loaves and fishes point of view,' Lindo answered, beginning to walk up and down the room in some excitement. I do not think an officer, when he gets promotion, looks only at the increase in his pay. Of course I am glad that it is a good living, and that I shall have a house, and a tolerable position, and all that. But I declare to you, Jack, believe me or not as you like, that if I did not feel that I could do the work as I hope, please Heaven, to do it, I would not take it up—I would not, indeed. As it is, I feel the responsibility. I have been thinking about it as I walked down here, and upon my honour for a while I thought I ought to decline it.'

'I would not do that!' said Gallio, dismissing the twinkle from his eyes, and really respecting his old friend, perhaps, a little more

than before. You are not the man, I think, to shun either work or responsibility. Did I tell you,' he continued in a different tone, that I had an uncle at Claversham ?'

'No,' said Lindo.

'Yes, and I think he is one of your churchwardens. His name is Bonamy, and he is a solicitor. His London agent is my only client,' Jack said jerkily.

'And he is one of the churchwardens! Well, that is strangeand jolly!'

'Umph! Don't you be too sure of that!' retorted the barrister sharply. 'He is a-well, he has been very good to me, and he is my uncle, and I am not going to say anything against him. But I am not quite sure that I should like him for my churchwarden. Your churchwarden! Why, it is like a fairy tale, old fellow!'

And so it seemed to Lindo when, an hour later, the small boy, with the same portentous gravity of face, let him out and bade him good-day. As the young parson started eastwards, along Fleet Street first, he looked at the moving things round him with new eyes, from a new standpoint, with a new curiosity. The passers-by were the same, but he was changed. He had lunched, and perhaps the material view of his position was uppermost, for those in the crowd who particularly observed the tall young clergyman noticed in his bearing an air of calm importance and a strong sense of personal dignity, which led him to shun collisions, and even to avoid jostling his fellows, with peculiar care. truth he had all the while before his eyes, as he walked, an announcement which was destined to appear in the Guardian' of the following week:

In

"The Rev. Reginald Lindo, M.A., St. Barnabas' Mission, London, to be Rector of Claversham. Patron, the Earl of Dynmore.'

CHAPTER III.

AN AWKWARD MEETING.

A FORTNIGHT after this paragraph in the 'Guardian' had filled Claversham with astonishment and Mr. Clode with a modest thankfulness that he was spared the burden of office, a little dark man-Jack Smith, in fact-drove briskly into Paddington Station

He disregarded the offers of the porters, who stand waiting on the hither side of the journey like Charon by the Styx, and see at a glance who has the obolus, and, springing from his hansom without assistance, bustled on to the platform.

Here he looked up and down as if he expected to meet some one, and then, glancing at the clock, found that he had a quarter of an hour to spare. He made at once for the bookstall, and, with a lavishness which would have surprised some of his friends, bought 'Punch,' a little volume by Howells, the 'Standard,' and finally, though he blushed as he asked for it, the 'Queen.' He had just gathered his purchases together and was paying for them, when a high-pitched voice at his elbow made him start. Why, Jack! what in the world are you buying all those papers for?' it said. The speaker was a girl about thirteen years old, who in the hubbub had stolen unnoticed to his side.

'Hullo, Daintry!' he answered. Why did you not say before that you were here? I have been looking for you. Where is Kate? Oh, yes, I see her,' as a young lady turning over books at the farther end of the stall acknowledged his presence by a laughing nod. 'You are here in good time,' he went on to the younger girl, who affectionately slipped her arm through his.

"Yes,' she said. Your mother started us early. And so you have come to see us off, after all, Jack?'

'Just so,' he answered dryly. Let us go to Kate.'

They did so, the young lady meeting them halfway. How kind of you to be here, Jack!' she said. As you have come, will you look us out a comfortable compartment? That is the train over there. And please to put this and this and Daintry's parcel in the corners for us.'

This and this were a cloak and a shawl, and a few little matters in brown paper. In order to possess himself of them, Jack handed Kate the papers he was carrying.

'Are they for me?' she said, gratefully indeed, but with a placid gratitude which was not perhaps what the donor wanted. 'Oh, thank you. And this too? What is it?'

9

"Their Wedding Journey," said Jack, with a tiny twinkle in his eyes.

'Is it pretty?' she answered dubiously. It sounds silly; but you are supposed to be a judge. I think I should like "A Chance Acquaintance" better, though.'

Of course the little book was changed, and Jack winced. But