y conversation with you on the
subject to which it is necessary that I should allude, and as I shall
not ask for your presence for above a minute or two, I will not
detain you by getting you to sit down. If I can induce you to listen
to me without replying to me it will, I think, be better for both of
us."

"Certainly, my lord."

"I will not have you speak to me respecting Lady Frances."

"When have I done so?" asked the chaplain plaintively.

"Nor will I have you speak to Lady Kingsbury about her
step-daughter." Then he was silent, and seemed to imply, by what he
had said before, that the clergyman should now leave the room. The
first order given had been very simple. It was one which the Marquis
certainly had a right to exact, and with which Mr. Greenwood felt
that he would be bound to comply. But the other was altogether of
a different nature. He was in the habit of constant conversation
with Lady Kingsbury as to Lady Frances. Twice, three times, four
times a day her ladyship, who in her present condition had no other
confidant, would open out her sorrow to him on this terrible subject.
Was he to tell her that he had been forbidden by his employer to
continue this practice, or was he to continue it in opposition to
the Marquis's wishes? He would have been willing enough to do as he
was bidden, but that he saw that he would be driven to quarrel with
the lord or the lady. The lord, no doubt, could turn him out of the
house, but the lady could make the house too hot to hold him. The
lord was a just man, though unreasonable, and would probably not turn
him out without compensation; but the lady was a violent woman, who
if she were angered would remember nothing of justice. Thinking of
all this he stood distracted and vacillating before his patron. "I
expect you," said the Marquis, "to comply with my wishes,--or to
leave me."

"To leave Trafford?" asked the poor man.

"Yes; to leave Trafford; to do that or to comply with my wishes on a
matter as to which my wishes are certainly entitled to consideration.
Which is it to be, Mr. Greenwood?"

"Of course, I will do as you bid me." Then the Marquis bowed
graciously as he still stood with his back to the fire, and Mr.
Greenwood left the room.

Mr. Greenwood knew well that this was only the beginning of his
troubles. When he made the promise he was quite sure that he would be
unable to keep it. The only prospect open to him was that of breaking
the promise and keepin