village. You could surely do something better."

"I don't know," he answered with a sigh. "There is nothing
else very obvious at present, and I cannot be a rover all my
life. For one thing, my health would not allow of my taking up
that sort of thing again just at present; and then there is
Maria to be considered. She hates the idea of leaving Ashurst,
and it has been her dream for years that this partnership
should be offered me, and that I should accept it. I owe it to
her to settle down into steady married life before long."

He rose, as he said these last words, and walked to the
window. Mrs. Treherne was called away at the same moment, and
he stood gazing out at the strip of garden before the house,
the Birdcage Walk beyond, the trees in the Park blowing about
against the dull sky. His thoughts were not there; they had
wandered away to the tropics, to the glowing skies, the
strange lands, the wild, free life in which his soul
delighted. He was glad to find himself in England once more,
amongst kindred and friends, but he loathed the thought of
being henceforth tied down to a life from which all freedom
would be banished, which must be spent in the dull routine of
a country parish. Graham was not now the lad who had once
looked on the world as lying at his feet, on all possibilities
as being within his grasp; he had long ceased to be a hero in
his own eyes; he had learnt one of life's sternest lessons, he
had touched the limits of his own powers. But in thus gaining
the knowledge of what he could not do, he had also proved what
he could be--he had recognised the bent of his genius, and he
knew that of all the mistakes of his life he had committed
none more grievous than that of binding himself to a woman who
neither sympathised nor pretended to sympathise with him and
his pursuits; and in compliance with whose wishes he was
preparing to take up the life for which, of all others within
the limits of his profession, he felt himself the least
suited. And she? Did she care for him?--did she love him enough
to make it worth the sacrifice?--was there the least chance of
their ever being happy together? Ah! what lovers' meeting had
that been that had passed between them at his sister's house!
What half-concealed indifference on her side, what
embarrassment on his, what silence falling between them, what
vain efforts to shake off an ever-increasing coldness and
constraint! It was five years since they had parted--was i