h of England. Remember me,
both of you, in your prayers."

The Bishop sank back exhausted, and his visitors went quietly out of the
room.

CHAPTER XIX

THE ALTAR FOR THE DEAD

All went as well with the new St. Agnes' as the Bishop had hoped.
Columns of red brick were covered in marble and alabaster by the votive
offerings of individuals or the subscriptions of different Silchester
Houses; the baldacchino was given by one rich old lady, the pavement of
the church by another; the Duke of Birmingham contributed a thurible;
Oxford Old Siltonians decorated the Lady Chapel; Cambridge Old
Siltonians found the gold mosaic for the dome of the apse. Father Rowley
begged money for the fabric far and wide, and the architect, the
contractors, and the workmen, all Chatsea men, gave of their best and
asked as little as possible in return. The new church was to be opened
on Easter morning. But early in Lent the Bishop of Silchester died in
the bed from which he had never risen since the day Father Rowley and
Mark received his blessing. The diocese mourned him, for he was a gentle
scholar, wise in his knowledge of men, simple and pious in his own life.

Dr. Harvard Cheesman, the new Bishop, was translated from the see of
Ipswich to which he had been preferred from the Chapel Royal in the
Savoy. Bishop Cheesman possessed all the episcopal qualities. He had the
hands of a physician and the brow of a scholar. He was filled with a
sense of the importance of his position, and in that perhaps was
included n sense of the importance of himself. He was eloquent in
public, grandiloquent in private. To him Father Rowley wrote shortly
after his enthronement.

St. Agnes' House,

Keppel Street,

Chatsea.

March 24.

My Lord Bishop,

I am unwilling to trouble you at a moment when you must be
unusually busy; but I shall be glad to hear from you about the
opening of the new church of the Silchester College Mission, which
was fixed for Easter Sunday. Your predecessor, Bishop Crawshay, did
not think that any new licence would be necessary, because the new
St. Agnes' is joined by the sacristy to the old mission church.
There is no idea at present of asking you to constitute St. Agnes'
a parish and therefore the question of consecration does not arise.
I regret to say that Bishop Crawshay thoroughly disapproved of our
services and ritual, and I think he may ha