t he should be at the inn that night.

"Yes," said Blake, when they had settled down to wait for their
dinner, "I am parson here,--a sort of a one at least. I am not only
curate, but live in expectation of higher things. Our squire here,
who owns the living, talks of giving it to me. There isn't a better
fellow living than Mr Furnival, or his wife, or his four daughters."

"Will he be as generous with one of them as with the living?"

"There is no necessity, as far as I am concerned. I came here
already provided in that respect. If you'll remain here till
September, you'll see me a married man. One Kattie Forrester intends
to condescend to become Mrs Montagu Blake. Though I say it as
shouldn't, a sweeter human being doesn't live on the earth. I met her
soon after I had taken orders. But I had to wait till I had some sort
of a house to put her into. Her father is a clergyman like myself, so
we are all in a boat together. She's got a little bit of money, and
I've got a little bit of money, so that we shan't absolutely starve.
Now you know all about me; and what have you been doing yourself?"

John Gordon thought that this friend of his had been most
communicative. He had been told everything concerning his friend's
life. Had Mr Blake written a biography of himself down to the
present period, he could not have been more full or accurate in his
details. But Gordon felt that as regarded himself he must be more
reticent. "I intended to have joined my father's bank, but that came
to grief."

"Yes; I did hear of some trouble in that respect."

"And then I went out to the diamond-fields."

"Dear me! that was a long way."

"Yes, it is a long way,--and rather rough towards the end."

"Did you do any good at the diamond-fields? I don't fancy that men
often bring much money home with them."

"I brought some."

"Enough to do a fellow any good in his after life?"

"Well, yes; enough to content me, only that a man is not easily
contented who has been among diamonds."

"Crescit amor diamonds!" said the parson. "I can easily understand
that. And then, when a fellow goes back again, he is so apt to
lose it all. Don't you expect to see your diamonds turn into
slate-stones?"

"Not except in the ordinary way of expenditure. I don't think the
gnomes or the spirits will interfere with them,--though the thieves
may, if they can get a hand upon them. But my diamonds have, for the
most part, been turned into ready money, and at