s his
parents.

In the pretty garden were innumerable wonderful stones heaped into all
sorts of masses, which he had helped his uncle to bring from various
parts in the neighbourhood, and all of which were curiosities in their
way; and there, also, was a fernery which he himself had made, and which
contained all the remarkable ferns of a country rich in those beautiful
productions of nature. The vicarage and its garden were neatness itself.
Mrs Jonathan prided herself on them, and took great pains to prove that
there could be, in a Welsh country village, a clergyman's abode
something akin to the far-famed dwellings of the English ecclesiastic.

The party from the church quite filled the little drawing-room. Mr
Jonathan Prothero was in an easy-chair, with his foot on a cushion, and
looking very much like a caged stork.

Every one began by congratulating him on the success of his nephew in
the pulpit.

'He must become a popular preacher,' said Lady Mary Nugent.

'I must say I have seldom heard more simple yet forcible language,'
said Mr Gwynne.

'He touched us all upon our besetting sin of pride,' said Colonel
Vaughan, glancing at Miss Gwynne, who said nothing.

'And thuch a beautiful voice!' remarked Miss Nugent.

Mrs Jonathan looked delighted.

'But where is he all this time, my dear?' asked the vicar.

We must answer the question by informing the reader that, having watched
his congregation leave the church, he went into the vestry and sat down
there, in order to avoid meeting any of the Gwynne party; when a
messenger from his aunt came to inform him that he was wanted at once.
He inquired by whom, and on hearing, tried to arm himself for an
unavoidable encounter with Miss Gwynne.

When he entered the room she was talking to his uncle, and had her back
turned to the door. He was at once greeted by Mr Gwynne and Lady Mary
Nugent, so that he did not find it necessary to shake hands with every
one, and made a kind of general bow, which he addressed to Miss Hall
particularly, and was therefore unconscious of the half-attempt of Freda
to rise from her seat as he entered. Miss Hall, alone, saw the flush on
her cheek, as she relapsed into her position by Mr Jonathan Prothero and
professed to be listening to the cause of his accident. His adventurous
search after trinobites in a celebrated quarry, the slipping of a stone,
and consequent spraining of his right ankle, sounded into one of her
ears, whilst the follow