child of one, I do indeed!'

'Dear Miss Whichello,' said Mrs Pendle, putting her arm round the poor
lady's neck, 'both the bishop and myself are proud that Mab should
become our daughter and George's wife. And after all,' she added
naively, 'neither of them will ever know the truth!'

'I hope not, I'm sure,' wept Miss Whichello.' I buried that miserable
man at my own expense, as he was Mab's father. And I have had a stone
put up to him, with his last name, "Jentham," inscribed on it, so that
no one might ask questions, which would have been asked had I written
his real name.'

'No one will ask questions,' said the bishop, soothingly, 'and if they
do, no answers will be forthcoming; we are all agreed on that point.'

'Quite agreed,' answered Baltic, as spokesman for the rest; 'we shall
let the dead past bury its dead, and God bless the future.'

'Amen!' said Dr Pendle, and bowed his grey head in a silence more
eloquent than words.

So far the rough was made smooth, with as much skill as could be
exercised by mortal brains; but after Dr Pendle had dismissed his
friends there yet remained to him an unpleasant task, the performance of
which, in justice to himself, could not longer be postponed. This was
the punishment and dismissal of Michael Cargrim, who indeed merited
little leniency at the hands of the man whose confidence he had so
shamefully abused. Serpents should be crushed, traitors should be
punished, however unpleasant may be the exercise of the judicial
function; for to permit evil men to continue in their evil-doing is to
encourage vicious habits detrimental to the well-being of humanity. The
more just the judge, the more severe should he be towards such
calculating sinners, lest, infected by example, mankind should become
even more corrupt than it is. Bishop Pendle was a kindly man, who wished
to think the best of his fellow-creatures, and usually did so; but he
could not blind himself to the base and plotting nature of Cargrim; and,
for the sake of his family, for the well-being of the Church, for the
benefit of the schemer himself, he summoned him to receive rebuke and
punishment. He was not now the patron, the benefactor; but the judge,
the ecclesiastical superior, severe and impartial.

Cargrim obeyed the summons unwillingly enough, as he knew very well that
he was about to receive the righteous reward of his deeds. A day or so
before, when lamenting to Baltic that Dr Pendle had proved innocent, th