three times, the curate raised the paper from the table and
re-read the passage that was evidently troubling him; and each time he
did so the puckers deepened, and his expression became more and more
careworn. It would have been difficult enough for a stranger to find any
clue to the cause of his agitation in the portion of the _Wabbleton Post
and Grubley Advertiser_ which the clergyman held before him; and the
wonder would certainly have been increased by the discovery that the
passage to which the reverend gentleman's attention was directed was
nothing else than the following innocent little paragraph of news:--

"Grubley.--We are asked to state that Benotti's Original Circus,
one of the oldest established and most complete in the kingdom,
will give two performances daily at Bounders Green during the whole
of next week."

There seemed little enough in such an announcement to bring disquiet to
the curate's mind. Possibly, he cherished a conscientious objection to
circuses, and remembered that, as Grubley and Great Wabbleton were only
three miles apart, a section of the S. Athanasius flock might be allured
next week by the meretricious attraction at Bounders Green. Yet even
such solicitude for the welfare of the flock of which he was the
assistant shepherd seemed scarcely to account either for his obvious
distress, or for the fragments of soliloquy that escaped him at every
fresh study of the paper.

"Here, of all places in the world--absolute ruin--no, not on any
account!"

At length, throwing down the _Post_, the curate seized his hat, started
at a rapid pace for the Vicarage, and was soon seated _tete-a-tete_ with
his superior, an amiable old gentleman with a portly presence and an
abiding faith in his assistant's ability to do the whole work of the
parish unaided.

"Vicar, do you think you can spare me for the next week or so? The fact
is, I am feeling the want of a change badly, and should be glad of a few
days to run down to my people in Devonshire."

"My dear Todd, how unfortunate! I have just made arrangements to be away
myself next week--and--and the week following. I am going up to London
to stay with my old friend Canon Crozier. I was just coming to tell you
so when you called. If you don't mind waiting till I return, I've no
doubt we can manage to spare you for a day or two. Sorry you're not
feeling well. By-the-bye, has that tiresome woman Mrs. Dunderton been
worrying you? She ca