al vehemence
for one of her demeanour--

'I don't wish I was like one of them: I wish I WAS one of them.'

'What--you wish you were a De Stancy?'

'Yes. It is very dreadful to be denounced as a barbarian. I want to be
romantic and historical.'

'Miss De Stancy seems not to value the privilege,' he said, looking
round at another part of the church where Charlotte was innocently
prattling to Mrs. Goodman, quite heedless of the tombs of her
forefathers.

'If I were one,' she continued, 'I should come here when I feel alone in
the world, as I do to-day; and I would defy people, and say, "You cannot
spoil what has been!"'

They walked on till they reached the old black pew attached to the
castle--a vast square enclosure of oak panelling occupying half the
aisle, and surmounted with a little balustrade above the framework.
Within, the baize lining that had once been green, now faded to the
colour of a common in August, was torn, kicked and scraped to rags by
the feet and hands of the ploughboys who had appropriated the pew as
their own special place of worship since it had ceased to be used by any
resident at the castle, because its height afforded convenient shelter
for playing at marbles and pricking with pins.

Charlotte and Mrs. Goodman had by this time left the building, and could
be seen looking at the headstones outside.

'If you were a De Stancy,' said Somerset, who had pondered more deeply
upon that new wish of hers than he had seemed to do, 'you would be a
churchwoman, and sit here.'

'And I should have the pew done up,' she said readily, as she rested
her pretty chin on the top rail and looked at the interior, her cheeks
pressed into deep dimples. Her quick reply told him that the idea was no
new one with her, and he thought of poor Mr. Woodwell's shrewd prophecy
as he perceived that her days as a separatist were numbered.

'Well, why can't you have it done up, and sit here?' he said warily.

Paula shook her head.

'You are not at enmity with Anglicanism, I am sure?'

'I want not to be. I want to be--what--'

'What the De Stancys were, and are,' he said insidiously; and her
silenced bearing told him that he had hit the nail.

It was a strange idea to get possession of such a nature as hers, and
for a minute he felt himself on the side of the minister. So strong was
Somerset's feeling of wishing her to show the quality of fidelity to
paternal dogma and party, that he could not help adding--

'Bu