people,
that Alick would not say a word to hasten him home, especially as
Rachel would have driven Bessie to Timber End, so that it would only be
returning to an empty house. And such was Mr. Clare's sociableness and
disability of detaching himself from pleasant conversation, that the
uncle and nephew scarcely started for their walk across the park in time
for the seven o'clock service. Mr. Clare had never been so completely
belated, and, as Alick's assistance was necessary, he could only augur
from his wife's absence that she was still at Timber End with his
sister.

CHAPTER XXVI. THE END OF CLEVERNESS.

"Where am I?
O vanity,
We are not what we deem,
The sins that hold my heart in thrall,
They are more real than all."--Rev. I. WILLIAMS.

As the uncle and nephew came out of church, and approached the yew-tree
gate, Rachel came swiftly to meet them. "Oh, Alick! oh, uncle!" she
said breathlessly. "Bessie says she is shocked to have turned your house
upside down, but we could not go any further. And her baby is born!"
Then in answer to exclamations, half-dismayed, half-wondering, "Yes, it
is all right, so Nurse Jones says. I could not send to you, for we
had to send everywhere at once. Mr. Harvey was not at home, and we
telegraphed to London, but no one has come yet, and now I have just
written a note to Lord Keith with the news of his son and heir. And,
uncle, she has set her heart on your baptizing him directly."

There was some demur, for though the child had made so sudden a rush
into the world, there seemed to be no ground for immediate alarm; and
Mr. Clare being always at hand, did not think it expedient to give the
name without knowing the father's wishes with regard to that hereditary
Alexander which had been borne by the dead son of the first marriage.
A message, however, came down to hasten him, and when--as he had often
before done in cottages--he demanded of Nurse Jones whether private
baptism were immediately necessary, she allowed that she saw no pressing
danger, but added, "that the lady was in a way about it," and this
both Rachel and her maid strongly corroborated. Rachel's maid was
an experienced person, whom Mrs. Curtis had selected with a view to
Rachel's weak state at the time of her marriage, and she showed herself
anxious for anything that might abate Lady Keith's excitement, to which
they at length yielded, feeling that resistance might be dangerous
to her. She further i