e upon, could scarcely offer to share his poverty with
poor Mr Wodehouse's cherished pet and darling. "I daresay she has been
used to live expensively," Mr Proctor said to himself, wincing a little
in his own mind at the thought. It was about one o'clock when he
reached the green door--an hour at which, during the few months of
his incumbency at Carlingford, he had often presented himself at that
hospitable house. Poor Mr Wodehouse! Mr Proctor could not help wondering
at that moment how he was getting on in a world where, according to
ordinary ideas, there are no lunch nor dinner parties, no old port nor
savoury side-dishes. Somehow it was impossible to realise Mr Wodehouse
with other surroundings than those of good-living and creature-comfort.
Mr Proctor sighed, half for the departed, half at thought of the
strangeness of that unknown life for which he himself did not feel much
more fitted than Mr Wodehouse. In the garden he saw the new heir sulkily
marching about among the flower-beds smoking, and looking almost as much
out of place in the sweet tranquillity of the English garden, as a
churchwarden of Carlingford or a Fellow of All-Souls could look, to
carry out Mr Proctor's previous imagination, in the vague beatitude of a
disembodied heaven. Wodehouse was so sick of his own company that he
came hastily forward at the sight of a visitor, but shrank a little when
he saw who it was.

"I suppose you have brought some news," he said, in his sullen way. "I
suppose he has been making his statements, has he? Much I care! He may
tell what lies he pleases; he can't do me any harm. I never did
anything but sign my own name, by Jove! Jack Wentworth himself says
so. I don't care _that_ for the parson and his threats," said
Wodehouse, snapping his fingers in Mr Proctor's face. The late Rector
drew back a little, with a shudder of disgust and resentment. He could
not help thinking that this fellow would most likely be his
brother-in-law presently, and the horror he felt made itself visible
in his face.

"I am quite unaware what you can mean," said Mr Proctor. "I am a
parson, but I never made any threats that I know of. I wish to see
Miss Wodehouse. I--I think she expects me at this hour," he said, with
a little embarrassment, turning to John, who, for his part, had been
standing by in a way which became his position as a respectable and
faithful servant, waiting any opportunity that might come handy to
show his disgust for the n