tly.
"It was out of the worldliness of the picnic sprung all the saintly
conversation that ensued."

"No, the transition was more gradual," said L'Estrange, smiling; for he
was at last amused at the asperity of this cross-examination. "Nor
was there what you call any saintly conversation at all. A few remarks
Colonel Bram-leigh indeed made on the insufficiency of, not the Church,
but churchmen, to resolve doubts and difficulties."

"I heartily agree with him," broke in Lord Culduff, with a smile of much
intended significance.

"And is it possible; are we to believe that all papa's attack was
brought on by a talk over a picnic?" asked Marion.

"I think I told you that he received many letters by the post, and to
some of them he adverted as being very important and requiring
immediate attention. One that came from Rome appeared to cause him much
excitement."

Marion turned away her head with an impatient toss, as though she
certainly was not going to accept this explanation as sufficient.

"I shall want a few minutes with Mr. L'Estrange alone in the library, if
I may be permitted," said the doctor, who had now entered the room after
his visit to the sick man.

"I hope you may be more successful than we have been," whispered Marion,
as she sailed out of the room, followed by Lord Culduff; and after a few
words with Augustus, the doctor and L'Estrange retired to confer in the
library.

"Don't flurry me; take me quietly, Doctor," said the curate, with a
piteous smile. "They 've given me such a burster over the deep ground
that I 'm completely blown. Do you know," added he, seriously, "they've
cross-questioned me in a way that would imply that I am the cause of
this sudden seizure?"

"No, no; they couldn't mean that."

"There 's no excuse then for the things Miss Bramleigh said to me."

"Remember what an anxious moment it is; people don't measure their
expressions when they are frightened. When they left him in the morning
he was in his usual health and spirits, and they come back to find
him very ill,--dangerously ill. That alone would serve to palliate
any unusual show of eagerness. Tell me now, was he looking perfectly
himself? was he in his ordinary spirits, when you met him?"

"No; I thought him depressed, and at times irritable."

"I see; he was hasty and abrupt. He did not brook contradiction,
perhaps?"

"I never went that far. If I dissented once or twice, I did so mildly
and even doubtingly."

"W