him; and though he himself felt the importance of the reredos, yet he
saw in a moment how such a question would take shape in the opinion of
the young Dissenter, in whom he clearly saw certain resemblances to
himself. Therefore he assented very briefly, taking out his note-book to
put down the special cases of which the Rector told him. They had a
confidential conversation in a corner, during which the new-comer
contemplated the figure of Northcote in his strange semi-clerical
garments with some amaze. "Who is your friend?" he said abruptly, for he
was a rapid man, losing no time about anything.

"It is not my friend at all; it is my enemy who denounced me at the
Dissenters' meeting."

"Pah!" cried the Rector, curling up his nostrils, as if some
disagreeable smell had reached him. "A Dissenter here! I should not have
expected it from you, May."

"Nor I either," said Reginald; but his colour rose. He was not disposed
to be rebuked by any rector in Carlingford or the world.

"Are you his curate," said Northcote, "that he orders you about as if
you were bound to do his bidding? I hope, for your own sake, it is not
so."

Now it was Reginald's turn to smile. He was young, and liked a bit of
grandiloquence as well as another.

"Since I have been here," he said, "in this sinecure, as you call
it--and such it almost is--I have been everybody's curate. If the others
have too much work, and I too little, my duty is clear, don't you
think?"

Northcote made no reply. Had he known what was about to be said to him,
he might have stirred up his faculties to say something; but he had not
an idea that Reginald would answer him like this, and it took him aback.
He was too honest himself not to be worsted by such a speech. He bowed
his head with genuine respect. The apology of the Churchman whom he had
assaulted, filled him with a kind of reverential confusion; he could
make no reply in words. And need it be said that Reginald's heart too
melted altogether when he saw how he had confounded his adversary? That
silent assent more than made up for the noisy onslaught. That he should
have thus overcome Northcote made Northcote appear his friend. He was
pleased and satisfied beyond the reach of words.

"Will you come to the hospital with me?" he said; and they walked out
together, the young Dissenter saying very little, doing what he could to
arrange those new lights which had suddenly flashed upon his favourite
subject, and feeling