the stigma
of their father's shame, but still Phebe believed it would have been
better for every one of them to have gone bravely forward to bear the
just consequences of sin.

She went down into Essex to spend a day or two at Christmas, carrying
with her the fitful spirit so foreign to her. The perfect health that
had been hers hitherto was broken; and Mrs. Pascal, a confirmed invalid,
to whom Phebe's physical vigor and evenness of temper had been a
constant source of delight and invigoration, felt the change in her
keenly.

"She has something on her mind," she said to her husband; "you must try
and find it out, or she will be ill."

"I know she has a secret," he answered, "but it is not her own. Phebe
Marlowe is as open as the day; she will never have a secret of her own."

But he made no effort to find out her secret. His searching, kindly eyes
met hers with the trustfulness of a frank and open nature that
recognized a nature akin to its own, and Phebe never shrank from his
gaze, though her lips remained closed. If it was right for her to tell
him anything of the stranger who had been about to make him his
confessor, she would do it. Canon Pascal would not ask any questions.

"Felix and Alice are growing more and more deeply in love with each
other," he said to her; "there is something beautiful and pleasant in
being a spectator of these palmy days of theirs. Felicita even felt
something of their happiness when she was here last, and she will not
withhold her full approbation much longer."

"And you," answered Phebe, with an eager flush on her face, "you do not
repent of giving Alice to the son of a man who might have been a
convict?"

"I believe Alice would marry Felix if his father had been a murderer,"
replied Canon Pascal; "it is too late to alter it now. Besides, I know
Felix through and through, he is himself; he is no longer the son of any
person, but a true man, one of the sons of God."

The strong and emphatic tone of Canon Pascal's words brought great
consolation to Phebe's troubled mind. She might keep silence with a good
conscience, for the duty of disclosing all to Canon Pascal arose simply
from the possibility that his conduct would be altered by this further
knowledge of Roland and Felicita.

"But this easy country life is not good for Felix," she said in a more
cheerful tone; "he needs a difficult parish to develop his energies. It
is not among your people he will become a second Felix Mer