ity? I have heard of such things being broken to laymen. Indeed it
has occurred to many of us, and we yet live.'

'I have urged the same facts on Julia myself,' said Miss Crofton. 'Indeed
I _know_, by personal experience, that what you say of the laity is true.
They do not break their hearts when disappointed. But Julia replies that
for her to act as you and I would advise might be to shatter the young
clergymen's ideals.'

'To shatter the ideals of three young men in holy orders!' said Merton.

'Yes, for Julia _is_ their ideal--Julia and Duty,' said Miss Crofton, as
if she were naming a firm. 'She lives only,' here Julia twisted the hand
of Miss Crofton, 'she lives only to do good. Her fortune, entirely under
her own control, enables her to do a great deal of good.'

Merton began to understand that the charms of Julia were not entirely
confined to her _beaux yeux_.

'She is a true philanthropist. Why, she rescued _me_ from the snares and
temptations of the stage,' said Miss Crofton.

'Oh, _now_ I understand,' said Merton; 'I knew that your face and voice
were familiar to me. Did you not act in a revival of _The Country
Wife_?'

'Hush,' said Miss Crofton.

'And Lady Teazle at an amateur performance in the Canterbury week?'

'These are days of which I do not desire to be reminded,' said Miss
Crofton. 'I was trying to explain to you that Julia lives to do good,
and has a heart of gold. No, my dear, Mr. Merton will much misconceive
you unless you let me explain everything.' This remark was in reply to
the agitated gestures of Julia. 'Thrown much among the younger clergy in
the exercise of her benevolence, Julia naturally awakens in them emotions
not wholly brotherly. Her sympathetic nature carries her off her feet,
and she sometimes says "Yes," out of mere goodness of heart, when it
would be wiser for her to say "No"; don't you, Julia?'

Merton was reminded of one of M. Paul Bourget's amiable married heroines,
who erred out of sheer goodness of heart, but he only signified his
intelligence and sympathy.

'Then poor Julia,' Miss Crofton went on hurriedly, 'finds that she has
misunderstood her heart. Recently, ever since she met Captain
Lestrange--of the Guards--'

'The fourth?' asked Merton.

Miss Crofton nodded. 'She has felt more and more certain that she _had_
misread her heart. But on each occasion she _has_ felt this--after
meeting the--well, the next one.'

'I see the awkwardness,' mur