can you, dear?"

Mr. Pendyce said:

"The old dog's losing all his teeth; he'll have to be put away."

His wife flushed painfully.

"Oh no, Horace--oh no!"

The Squire coughed.

"We must think of the dog!" he said.

Mrs. Pendyce rose, and crumpling the letter nervously, followed him from
the room.

A narrow path led through the home paddock towards the church, and along
it the household were making their way. The maids in feathers hurried
along guiltily by twos and threes; the butler followed slowly by himself.
A footman and a groom came next, leaving trails of pomatum in the air.
Presently General Pendyce, in a high square-topped bowler hat, carrying a
malacca cane, and Prayer-Book, appeared walking between Bee and Norah,
also carrying Prayer-Books, with fox-terriers by their sides. Lastly,
the Squire in a high hat, six or seven paces in advance of his wife, in a
small velvet toque.

The rooks had ceased their wheeling and their cawing; the five-minutes
bell, with its jerky, toneless tolling, alone broke the Sunday hush. An
old horse, not yet taken up from grass, stood motionless, resting a
hind-leg, with his face turned towards the footpath. Within the
churchyard wicket the Rector, firm and square, a low-crowned hat tilted
up on his bald forehead, was talking to a deaf old cottager. He raised
his hat and nodded to the ladies; then, leaving his remark unfinished,
disappeared within the vestry. At the organ Mrs. Barter was drawing out
stops in readiness to play her husband into church, and her eyes,
half-shining and half-anxious, were fixed intently on the vestry door.

The Squire and Mrs. Pendyce, now almost abreast, came down the aisle and
took their seats beside their daughters and the General in the first pew
on the left. It was high and cushioned. They knelt down on tall red
hassocks. Mrs. Pendyce remained over a minute buried in thought; Mr.
Pendyce rose sooner, and looking down, kicked the hassock that had been
put too near the seat. Fixing his glasses on his nose, he consulted a
worn old Bible, then rising, walked to the lectern and began to find the
Lessons. The bell ceased; a wheezing, growling noise was heard. Mrs.
Barter had begun to play; the Rector, in a white surplice, was coming in.
Mr. Pendyce, with his back turned, continued to find the Lessons. The
service began.

Through a plain glass window high up in the right-hand aisle the sun shot
a gleam athwart the Pendyces' pew. It