But if I was asked I should make answer that it has come along of
them sermons." Then Matthew looked very serious, and bathed his head.

"I suppose so."

"That was it, Mr. Harry. We, none of us, were very fond of the sermons."

"I dare say not."

"We in the kitchen. But we was bound to have them, or we should have
lost our places."

"And now I must lose my place." The butler said nothing, but his face
assented. "A little hard, isn't it, Matthew? But I wish to say a few
words to my uncle,--not to express any regret about the sermons, but to
ask what it is that he intends to do." Here Matthew shook his head very
slowly. "He has given positive orders that I shall not be admitted?"

"It must be over my dead body, Mr. Harry," and he stood in the way with
the door in his hand, as though intending to sacrifice himself should he
be called upon to do so by the nature of the circumstances. Harry,
however, did not put him to the test; but bidding him good-bye with some
little joke as to his fidelity, made his way back to the parsonage.

That night before he went to bed he wrote a letter to his uncle, as to
which he said not a word to either his father, or mother, or sisters. He
thought that the letter was a good letter, and would have been proud to
show it; but he feared that either his father or mother would advise him
not to send it, and he was ashamed to read it to Molly. He therefore
sent the letter across the park the next morning by the gardener.

The letter was as follows:

"MY DEAR UNCLE,--My father has shown me your letter to him, and, of
course, I feel it incumbent on me to take some notice of it. Not wishing
to trouble you with a letter I called this morning, but I was told by
Matthew that you would not see me. As you have expressed yourself to my
father very severely as to my conduct, I am sure you will agree with me
that I ought not to let the matter pass by without making my own
defence.

"You say that there was a row in the streets between Mountjoy
Scarborough and myself in which he was 'left for dead.' When I left him
I did not think he had been much hurt, nor have I had reason to think so
since. He had attacked me, and I had simply defended myself. He had come
upon me by surprise; and, when I had shaken him off, I went away. Then
in a day or two he had disappeared. Had he been killed, or much hurt,
the world would have heard of it: but the world simply heard that he had
disappeared, which could hardly