m till
the last moment.

Lucilla's heart had beaten fast from the moment she had reached
Kingstown; she was keeping her hand free to wave a most encouraging kiss,
and as her eye roamed over the heads upon the quay without a recognition,
she felt absolutely baffled and cheated; and gloriously as the Bay of
Dublin spread itself before her, she was conscious only of wrath and
mortification, and of a bitter sense of dreariness and desertion. Nobody
cared for her, not even her brother!

CHAPTER IX

My pride, that took
Fully easily all impressions from below,
Would not look up, or half despised the height
To which I could not, or I would not climb.
I thought I could not breathe in that fine air.

_Idylls of the King_

'Can you come and take a turn in the Temple-gardens, Phoebe?' asked
Robert, on the way from church, the day after Owen's visit to
Woolstone-lane.

Phoebe rejoiced, for she had scarcely seen him since his return from
Castle Blanch, and his state of mind was a mystery to her. It was long,
however, before he afforded her any clue. He paced on, grave and
abstracted, and they had many times gone up and down the least frequented
path, before he abruptly said, 'I have asked Mr. Parsons to give me a
title for Holy Orders.'

'I don't quite know what that means.'

'How simple you are, Phoebe,' he said, impatiently; 'it means that St.
Wulstan's should be my first curacy. May my labours be accepted as an
endeavour to atone for some of the evil we cause here.'

'Dear Robin! what did Mr. Parsons say? Was he not very glad?'

'No; there lies the doubt.'

'Doubt?'

'Yes. He told me that he had engaged as many curates as he has means
for. I answered that my stipend need be no consideration, for I only
wished to spend on the parish, but he was not satisfied. Many incumbents
don't like to have curates of independent means; I believe it has an
amateur appearance.'

'Mr. Parsons cannot think you would not be devoted.'

'I hope to convince him that I may be trusted. It is all that is left me
now.'

'It will be very cruel to you, and to the poor people, if he will not,'
said Phoebe, warmly; 'what will papa and Mervyn say?'

'I shall not mention it till all is settled; I have my father's consent
to my choice of a profession, and I do not think myself bound to let him
dictate my course as a minister. I owe a higher duty