it, and so the
matter dropped, but Theobald did not forget it and my visits to Battersby
were henceforth less frequent.

On our return to the house we found the postman had arrived and had
brought a letter appointing Theobald to a rural deanery which had lately
fallen vacant by the death of one of the neighbouring clergy who had held
the office for many years. The bishop wrote to Theobald most warmly, and
assured him that he valued him as among the most hard-working and devoted
of his parochial clergy. Christina of course was delighted, and gave me
to understand that it was only an instalment of the much higher dignities
which were in store for Theobald when his merits were more widely known.

I did not then foresee how closely my godson's life and mine were in
after years to be bound up together; if I had, I should doubtless have
looked upon him with different eyes and noted much to which I paid no
attention at the time. As it was, I was glad to get away from him, for I
could do nothing for him, or chose to say that I could not, and the sight
of so much suffering was painful to me. A man should not only have his
own way as far as possible, but he should only consort with things that
are getting their own way so far that they are at any rate comfortable.
Unless for short times under exceptional circumstances, he should not
even see things that have been stunted or starved, much less should he
eat meat that has been vexed by having been over-driven or underfed, or
afflicted with any disease; nor should he touch vegetables that have not
been well grown. For all these things cross a man; whatever a man comes
in contact with in any way forms a cross with him which will leave him
better or worse, and the better things he is crossed with the more likely
he is to live long and happily. All things must be crossed a little or
they would cease to live--but holy things, such for example as Giovanni
Bellini's saints, have been crossed with nothing but what is good of its
kind,

CHAPTER XXIV

The storm which I have described in the previous chapter was a sample of
those that occurred daily for many years. No matter how clear the sky,
it was always liable to cloud over now in one quarter now in another, and
the thunder and lightning were upon the young people before they knew
where they were.

"And then, you know," said Ernest to me, when I asked him not long since
to give me more of his childish reminiscences fo