finished there was perhaps no more angry clergyman in the British
Empire. The description of himself looking as though he had eaten a
hatful of crab-apples; the impious remarks about the Thirty-nine
Articles; the suggestion that Godfrey, instead of going to bed as he
had ordered him to do that evening, was wandering about London at
midnight; the boldly announced intention of the writer of not going to
church--indeed, every word of it irritated him beyond bearing.

"Well," he said aloud, "I do not think that I am called upon to spend
twopence-halfpenny" (for Isobel had forgotten the stamp) "in forwarding
such poisonous trash to a son whom I should guard from evil. Hateful
girl! At any rate she shall have no answer to this effusion."

Then he put the letter into a drawer which he locked.

As a consequence, naturally, Isobel did receive "no answer," a fact
from which she drew her own conclusions. Indeed, it would not be too
much to say that these seared her soul. She had written to Godfrey, she
had humbled herself before Godfrey, and he sent her--no answer. It
never occurred to her to make inquiries as to the fate of that letter,
except once when she asked the housemaid whom she chanced to meet,
whether she had given it to Mrs. Parsons. The girl, whose brain, or
whatever represented that organ, was entirely fixed upon a young man in
the village of whom she was jealous, answered, yes. Perhaps she had
entirely forgotten the incident, or perhaps she considered the throwing
of the letter upon a table as equivalent to delivery.

At any rate, Isobel, who thought, like most other young people, that
when they once have written something, it is conveyed by a magical
agency to the addressee, even if left between the leaves of a blotter,
accepted the assurance as conclusive. Without doubt the letter had gone
and duly arrived, only Godfrey did not choose to answer it, that was
all. Perhaps this might be because he was still angry on account of the
knight in armour--oh! how she hoped that this was the reason, but, as
her cold, common sense, of which she had an unusual share, convinced
her, much more probably the explanation was that he was engaged
otherwise, and did not think it worth while to take the trouble to
write.

Later on, it is true, she did mean to ask Mrs. Parsons whether she had
forwarded the letter. But as it chanced, before she did so, that good
woman burst into a flood of conversation about Godfrey, saying how
happ