redulity on which he
traded. Then, thinking a flutter outward of the corners of his cards the
best policy in the circumstances about them at the moment, he added,
"And when you get there you will understand more than you do now. For
you will go?"

"Surely," said Alick: "it would be unfaithful in me to refuse."

"But see if you cannot make arrangements to take the place on trial for
a few months. I know very little of your ecclesiastical law, but grant
even that it is as devoid of common sense as I should suppose--seeing
who are the men who make, administer and obey it--still, I should think
that a temporary incumbency might be arranged."

"I should think so, and I will take your advice," said Alick, over whom
Emmanuel Gryce was fast establishing the power which belongs to the
stronger over the weaker, to the more astute over the more dense.

"You will find an adopted daughter of mine in the neighborhood," then
said Mr. Gryce with the most amiable indifference. "She lives with my
sister at our old home on the fell-side: Windy Brow the place is called.
You must tell me how she looks and what you think of her altogether when
you write to me, as I suppose you will do, or when you come home, if you
elect not to take the cure even on trial."

"I am not much in the way of criticising young ladies," said Alick
sadly.

"She is rather a remarkable girl, all things considered," returned Mr.
Gryce quietly. "Her name is Leonora Darley. You will remember--Leonora
Darley. Ask for her when you go up to Windy Brow: Leonora Darley," for
the third time.

"All right: Miss Leonora Darley," repeated Alick, suspecting nothing;
and again Mr. Gryce smiled as he dug his fingers into the earth of a
chrysalis-box. How pleasant it was to pull the strings and see his
puppets dance!

Of course, Mr. Birkett's consent was a necessary preliminary to Alick's
departure, but there was no difficulty about it. The military rector was
tired to death, so he used to say, of his zealous young aide-de-camp,
and hailed the prospect of getting rid of him handsomely with a frank
pleasure not flattering to poor Alick's self-love. "Certainly, my dear
boy, certainly," he said. "It will be better for you to have a place of
your own, where you can carry out your new ideas. You see I am an old
man now, and have learnt the value of letting well alone. You are in all
the fever-time of zeal, and believe that vice and ignorance are like the
walls of Jericho, to fall