am
privileged for a little time to share in it must carry away with me
enough to make a treasure of peace in my own heart, so that I can give
from that treasure to those who have never known peace."

_The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son
Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with
you always._

When Mark heard these words sound from the altar far away in the golden
glooms of the Cathedral, it seemed to him that the building bowed like a
mighty couchant beast and fell asleep in the security of God's presence.

After Mark had been a year at the Theological College he received a
letter from the Bishop:

High Thorpe Castle.

Sept. 21, '04.

Dear Lidderdale,

I have heard from Canon Havelock that he considers you are ready to
be ordained at Advent, having satisfactorily passed the Cambridge
Preliminary Theological Examination. If therefore you succeed in
passing my examination early in November, I am willing to ordain
you on December 18. It will be necessary of course for you to
obtain a title, and I have just heard from Mr. Shuter, the Vicar of
St. Luke's, Galton, that he is anxious to make arrangements for a
curate. You had better make an appointment, and if I hear
favourably from him I will licence you for his church. It has
always been the rule in this diocese that non-graduate candidates
for Holy Orders should spend at least two years over their
theological studies, but I am not disposed to enforce this rule in
your case.

Yours very truly,

Aylmer Silton.

This expression of fatherly interest made Mark anxious to show his
appreciation of it, and whatever he had thought of St. Luke's, Galton,
or of its incumbent he would have done his best to secure the title
merely to please the Bishop. Moreover, his money was coming to an end,
and another year at the Theological College would have compelled him to
borrow from Mr. Ogilvie, a step which he was most anxious to avoid. He
found that Galton, which he remembered from the days when he had sent
Cyril Pomeroy there to be met by Dorward, was a small county town of
some eight or nine thousand inhabitants and that St. Luke's was a new
church which had originally been a chapel of eas