anything happened, or are
you going out of your mind?"

"I think it must be that," said Mr Wentworth. "Something so
extraordinary has happened that I cannot believe it. Was I in Prickett's
Lane this afternoon as usual, or was I at home in my own room talking to
the Rector--or have I fallen asleep somewhere, and is the whole thing a
dream?"

"You were certainly not in Prickett's Lane," said Lucy. "I see what it
is. Miss Leonora Wentworth has changed her mind, and you are going to
have Skelmersdale after all. I did not think you could have made up
your mind to leave the district. It is not news that gives me any
pleasure," said the Sister of Mercy, as she loosed slowly off from her
shoulders the grey cloak which was the uniform of the district. Her
own thoughts had been so different that she felt intensely mortified
to think of the unnecessary decision she had been so near making, and
disappointed that the offer of a living could have moved her lover to
such a pitch of pleasure. "All men are alike, it seems," she said to
herself, with a little quiver in her lip--a mode of forestalling his
communications which filled the Perpetual Curate with amazement and
dismay.

"What are you thinking of?" he said. "Miss Leonora Wentworth has not
changed her mind. That would have been a natural accident enough, but
this is incredible. If you like, Lucy," he added, with an unsteady
laugh, "and will consent to my original proposition, you may marry on
the 15th, not the Perpetual Curate of St Roque's, but the Rector of
Carlingford. Don't look at me with such an unbelieving countenance. It
is quite true."

"I wonder how you can talk so," cried Lucy, indignantly; "it is all a
made-up story; you know it is. I don't like practical jokes," she went
on, trembling a little, and taking another furtive look at him--for
somehow it was too wonderful not to be true.

"If I had been making up a story, I should have kept to what was
likely," said Mr Wentworth. "The Rector has been with me all the
afternoon--he says he has been offered his father's rectory, where he
was brought up, and that he has made up his mind to accept it, as he
always was fond of the country;--and that he has recommended me to his
College for the living of Carlingford."

"Yes, yes," said Lucy, impatiently, "that is very good of Mr Morgan;
but you know you are not a member of the College, and why should you
have the living? I knew it could not be true."

"They are all a s