the subject of his
new rectory, which surely must be safe ground.

"It is a pretty little place," Mr Proctor said, with satisfaction: "of
course it is but a small living compared to Carlingford. I hope you
will come and see me, after--it is furnished," said the bashful
bridegroom: "it is a nuisance to have all that to look after for one's
self--"

"I hope you will have somebody to help you," said Mrs Morgan, with a
little earnestness; "gentlemen don't understand about such things.
When you have one piece of furniture in bad taste, it spoils a whole
room--carpets, for instance--" said the Rector's wife. She looked at
Mr Proctor so severely that the good man faltered, though he was not
aware of the full extent of his guiltiness.

"I am sure I don't know," he said: "I told the man here to provide
everything as it ought to be; and I think we were very successful,"
continued Mr Proctor, with a little complacency: to be sure, they were
in the dining-room at the moment, being still at the breakfast-table.
"Buller knows a great deal about that sort of thing, but then he is too
ecclesiological for my taste. I like things to look cheerful," said the
unsuspicious man. "Buller is the only man that could be reckoned on if
any living were to fall vacant. It is very odd nowadays how indifferent
men are about the Church. I don't say that it is not very pleasant at
All-Souls; but a house of one's own, you know--" said Mr Proctor,
looking with a little awkward enthusiasm at his recently-married
brother; "of course I mean a sphere--a career--"

"Oh, ah, yes," said Mr Morgan, with momentary gruffness; "but
everything has its drawbacks. I don't think Buller would take a
living. He knows too well what's comfortable," said the suffering man.
"The next living that falls will have to go to some one out of the
college," said Mr Morgan. He spoke with a tone of importance and
significance which moved Mr Proctor, though he was not rapid in his
perceptions, to look across at him for further information.

"Most people have some crotchet or other," said the Rector. "When a
man's views are clear about subscription, and that sort of thing, he
generally goes as far wrong the other way. Buller might go out to
Central Africa, perhaps, if there was a bishopric of Wahuma--or what
is the name, my dear, in that Nile book?"

"I have not read it," said Mrs Morgan, and she made no further remark.

Thus discouraged in his little attempt at amity, the Recto