r. The pudding, though it was the
Rector's favourite pudding, prepared from a receipt only known at
All-Souls, in which the late respected Head of that learned community
had concentrated all his genius, was eaten in uneasy silence, broken
only by the most transparent attempts on both sides to make a little
conversation. Thomas hovered sternly over his master and mistress all
the time, exacting with inexorable severity every usage of the table.
He would not let them off the very smallest detail, but insisted on
handing round the peaches, notwithstanding Mrs Morgan's protest. "They
are the first out of the new orchard-house," said the Rector's wife.
"I want your opinion of them. That will do, Thomas; we have got
everything now, I think." Mrs Morgan was a little anxious about the
peaches, having made a great many changes on her own responsibility in
the gardening department; but the Rector took the downy fruit as if it
had been a turnip, and notwithstanding her interest in the
long-delayed news, his wife could not but find it very provoking that
he took so little notice of her exertions.

"Roberts stood out against the new flue as long as he could," said
Mrs Morgan. "Mr Proctor took no interest in the garden, and everything
had gone to ruin; though I must say it was very odd that anybody from
_your_ college, William, should be careless about such a vital
matter," said the Rector's wife, with a little asperity. "I suppose
there must be something in the air of Carlingford which makes people
indifferent." Naturally, it was very provoking, after all the trouble
she had taken, to see her husband slicing that juicy pulp as if it had
been any ordinary market fruit.

"I beg your pardon, my dear," said Mr Morgan; "I was thinking of this
story about Mr Wentworth. One is always making new discoveries of the
corruption of human nature. He had behaved very badly to me; but it is
very sad to see a young man sacrifice all his prospects for the
indulgence of his passions; though that is a very secular way of
looking at the subject," said the Rector, shaking his head mournfully.
"If it is bad in a worldly point of view, what is it in a spiritual?
and in this age, too, when it is so important to keep up the character
of the clergy!" Mr Morgan sighed again more heavily than ever as he
poured out the single glass of port, in which his wife joined him
after dinner. "Such an occurrence throws a stigma upon the whole
Church, as Mr Leeson very