edgments for his gallant extraction of the
will.

No one was more obliged to him than Hector Ernescliffe, who wrote to
Margaret that it would be very jolly to come home again, and that he
was delighted that the captain could not hinder either that or Cocksmoor
Church. "And as to Maplewood, I shall not hate it so much, if that
happens which I hope will happen." Of which oracular sentence, Margaret
could make nothing.

The house of May felt more at their ease when the uncongenial captain
had departed, although he carried off Harry with him. There was the
better opportunity for a tea-drinking consultation with Dr. Spencer
and Mr. Wilmot, when Margaret lay on her sofa, looking better than for
months past, and taking the keenest interest in every arrangement.

Dr. Spencer, whose bright eyes glittered at every mention of the
subject, assumed that he was to be the architect, while Dr. May was
assuring him that it was a maxim that no one unpaid could be trusted;
and when he talked of beautiful German churches with pierced spires,
declared that the building must not make too large a hole in the twenty
thousand, at the expense of future curates, because Richard was the
first.

"I'll be prudent, Dick," said Dr. Spencer. "Trust me not to rival the
minster."

"We shall find work next for you there," said Mr. Wilmot.

"Ay, we shall have May out of his family packing-box before many years
are over his head."

"Don't mention it," said Dr. May; "I know what I exposed myself to in
bringing Wilmot here."

"Yes," said Dr. Spencer, "we shall put you in the van when we attack the
Corporation pen."

"I shall hold by the good old cause. As if the galleries had not been
there before you were born!"

"As if poor people had a right to sit in their own church!" said Ethel.

"Sit, you may well say," said Mr. Wilmot. "As if any one could do
otherwise, with those ingenious traps for hindering kneeling."

"Well, well, I know the people must have room," said Dr. May, cutting
short several further attacks which he saw impending.

"Yes, you would like to build another blue gallery, blocking up another
window, and with Richard May and Christopher Tomkins, Churchwardens, on
it, in orange-coloured letters--the Rivers' colours. No disrespect to
your father, Miss May, but, as a general observation, it is a property
of Town Councillors to be conservative only where they ought not."

"I brought you here to talk of building a church, not of pul