nied by
so much safety as to the future in her own case, and so much danger
in those other cases! I think it was this aptitude for feminine
rakishness which, more than any of his great virtues, more even than
his indomitable industry, made Mr Stumfold the most popular man in
Littlebath. A dozen ladies on the present occasion skipped away to
the tea-table in the back drawing-room with a delighted alacrity,
which was all owing to the unceremonious treatment which St Peter and
St Paul had received from their pastor.

Miss Mackenzie had just found time to cast an eye round the room and
examine the scene of Mr Stumfold's pleasantries while Mr Maguire was
reading. She saw that there were only three gentlemen there besides
the two clergymen. There was a very old man who sat close wedged
in between Mrs Stumfold and another lady, by whose joint dresses
he was almost obliterated. This was Mr Peters, a retired attorney.
He was Mrs Stumfold's father, and from his coffers had come the
superfluities of comfort which Miss Mackenzie saw around her. Rumour,
even among the saintly people of Littlebath, said that Mr Peters
had been a sharp practitioner in his early days;--that he had been
successful in his labours was admitted by all.

"No doubt he has repented," Miss Baker said one day to Miss Todd.

"And if he has not, he has forgotten all about it, which generally
means the same thing," Miss Todd had answered.

Mr Peters was now very old, and I am disposed to think he had
forgotten all about it.

The other two gentlemen were both young, and they stood very high
in the graces of all the company there assembled. They were high
in the graces of Mr Stumfold, but higher still in the graces of Mrs
Stumfold, and were almost worshipped by one or two other ladies whose
powers of external adoration were not diminished by the possession
of husbands. They were, both of them, young men who had settled
themselves for a time at Littlebath that they might be near Mr
Stumfold, and had sufficient of worldly wealth to enable them to pass
their time in semi-clerical pursuits.

Mr Frigidy, the elder, intended at some time to go into the Church,
but had not as yet made sufficient progress in his studies to justify
him in hoping that he could pass a bishop's examination. His friends
told him of Islington and St Bees, of Durham, Birkenhead, and other
places where the thing could be done for him; but he hesitated,
fearing whether he might be able to pa