urged Gabriel, seeing that George kept silent,
'surely you will not visit the sins of the father on the innocent
child?'

'It is scriptural law, my son.'

'It is not the law of Christ,' replied the curate.

'Law or no law!' said Captain Pendle, determinedly, 'I shall not give
Mab up. Her father may have been a Nero for all I care. I marry his
daughter all the same; she is a good, pure, sweet woman.'

'I admit that she is all that,' said the bishop, 'and I do not want you
to give her up without due inquiry into the matter of which I speak. But
it is my desire that you should return to your regiment until the affair
can be sifted.'

'Who should sift it but I?' inquired George, hotly.

'If you place it in my hands all will--I trust--be well, my son. I shall
see Miss Whichello and Mrs Pansey and learn the truth.'

'And if the truth be as cruel as you suspect?'

'In that case,' said the bishop, slowly, 'I shall consider the matter;
you must not think that I wish you to break off your engagement
altogether, George, but I desire you to suspend it, so to speak. For the
reasons I have stated, I disapprove of your marrying Miss Arden, but it
may be that, should I be informed fully about her father, I may change
my mind. In the meantime, I wish you to rejoin your regiment and remain
with it until I send for you.'

'And if I refuse?'

'In that case,' said the bishop, sternly, 'I shall refuse my consent
altogether. Should you refuse to acknowledge my authority I shall treat
you as a stranger. But I have been a good father to you, George, and I
trust that you will see fit to obey me.'

'I am not a child,' said Captain Pendle, sullenly.

'You are a man of the world,' replied his father, skilfully, 'and as
such must see that I am speaking for your own good. I ask merely for
delay, so that the truth may be known before you engage yourself
irrevocably to this young lady.'

'I look upon my engagement as irrevocable! I have asked Mab to be my
wife, I have given her a ring, I have won her heart; I should be a mean
hound,' cried George, lashing himself into a rage, 'if I gave her up for
the lying gossip of an old she-devil like Mrs Pansey.'

'Your language is not decorous, sir.'

'I--I beg your pardon, father, but don't be too hard on me.'

'Your own good sense should tell you that I am not hard on you.'

'Indeed,' put in Gabriel, 'I think that my father has reason on his
side, George.'

'You are not in love,' growled