want you to understand how deeply I regret having
been forced to take the action I have. I ask your prayers, Mr. Rowley,
and please be sure that you always have and always will have my prayers.
Have you anything more you would like to say? Do not let me give you the
impression from my alluding to the heavy work of entering upon the
duties and responsibilities of a new diocese that I desire to hurry you
in any way this afternoon. You will want to catch the 4.10 back to
Chatsea I have no doubt. Too early perhaps for tea. Good-bye, Mr.
Rowley. Good-bye, Mr. . . ." the Bishop paused and looked inquiringly at
Mark. "Lidderdale, ah, yes," he said. "For the moment I forgot.
Good-bye, Mr. Lidderdale. A simple railing will, I think be sufficient
for the altar in question, Mr. Rowley. I perfectly appreciate your
motive in asking the Bishop of Barbadoes to officiate at the opening. I
quite see that you did not wish to commit me to an approval of a ritual
which might be more advanced than I might consider proper in my diocese.
. . . Good-bye, good-bye."

Father Rowley and Mark found themselves once more in the drive. The
episcopal standard floated in the wind, which had sprung up while they
were with the Bishop. They walked silently to the railway station under
a fast clouding sky.

CHAPTER XX

FATHER ROWLEY

The first episcopal act of the Bishop of Silchester drove many poor
souls away from God. It was a time of deep emotional stress for all the
St. Agnes' workers, and Father Rowley could not show himself in Keppel
Street without being surrounded by a crowd of supplicants who with tears
and lamentations begged him to give up the new St. Agnes' and to remain
in the old mission church rather than be lost to them for ever. There
were some who even wished him to surrender the Third Altar; but in his
last sermon preached on the Sunday night before he left Chatsea, he
spoke to them and said:

"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The 15th verse of the 21st Chapter of the Holy Gospel according to Saint
John: _Feed my lambs._

"It is difficult for me, dear people, to preach to you this evening for
the last time as your missioner, to preach, moreover, the last sermon
that will ever be preached in this little mission church which has meant
so much to you and so much to me. By the mercy of God man does not
realize at the moment all that is implied by an occasion like this. He
speaks with his