mind. When we went to
be examined, the pa'son said to me, "Rehearse the articles of thy
belief." Mr. Blount (as he was then) was nighest me, and he whispered,
"Women and wine." "Women and wine," says I to the pa'son: and for that I
was sent back till next confirmation, Sir Blount never owning that he was
the rascal.'

'Confirmation was a sight different at that time,' mused Biles. 'The
Bishops didn't lay it on so strong then as they do now. Now-a-days, yer
Bishop gies both hands to every Jack-rag and Tom-straw that drops the
knee afore him; but 'twas six chaps to one blessing when we was boys. The
Bishop o' that time would stretch out his palms and run his fingers over
our row of crowns as off-hand as a bank gentleman telling money. The
great lords of the Church in them days wasn't particular to a soul or two
more or less; and, for my part, I think living was easier for 't.'

'The new Bishop, I hear, is a bachelor-man; or a widow gentleman is it?'
asked Mrs. Martin.

'Bachelor, I believe, ma'am. Mr. San Cleeve, making so bold, you've
never faced him yet, I think?'

Mrs. Martin shook her head.

'No; it was a piece of neglect. I hardly know how it happened,' she
said.

'I am going to, this time,' said Swithin, and turned the chat to other
matters.

XXIII

Swithin could not sleep that night for thinking of his Viviette. Nothing
told so significantly of the conduct of her first husband towards the
poor lady as the abiding dread of him which was revealed in her by any
sudden revival of his image or memory. But for that consideration her
almost childlike terror at Swithin's inadvertent disguise would have been
ludicrous.

He waited anxiously through several following days for an opportunity of
seeing her, but none was afforded. Her brother's presence in the house
sufficiently accounted for this. At length he ventured to write a note,
requesting her to signal to him in a way she had done once or twice
before,--by pulling down a blind in a particular window of the house, one
of the few visible from the top of the Rings-Hill column; this to be done
on any evening when she could see him after dinner on the terrace.

When he had levelled the glass at that window for five successive nights
he beheld the blind in the position suggested. Three hours later, quite
in the dusk, he repaired to the place of appointment.

'My brother is away this evening,' she explained, 'and that's why I can
come out.