ever I told George, whose conceit has
to be kept down. Let this console you."

"Our new parson, when he comes, is to lodge down in Innis
Village. Your mother--but no doubt she has told you--stays in
the Parsonage while she pleases. She and your grandmother are
both well. I see her every day: I have so much to learn, and
she is so wise. Her beautiful eyes--but oh, Taffy, it must be
terrible to be a widow! She smiles and is always cheerful; but
the _look_ in them! How can I describe it? When I find her
alone with her lace-work, or sometimes (but it is not often)
with her hands in her lap, she seems to come out of her silence
with an effort, as others withdraw themselves from talk.
I wonder if she does talk in those silences of hers.
Another thing, it is only a few weeks now since she put on a
widow's cap, and yet I cannot remember her--can scarcely
picture her--without it. I am sure that if I happened to call
one day when she had laid it aside, I should begin to talk
quite as if we were strangers."

"Believe me, yours sincerely,"
"HONORIA."

But the wedding, after all, did not take place until the beginning of
October, a week before the close of the Long Vacation; and Taffy,
after all, was present. The postponement had been enforced by many
delays in building and furnishing the new wing at Carwithiel; for Sir
Harry insisted that the young couple must live under one roof with
him, and Honoria (as we know) hated the very stones of Tredinnis.

The Bishop came to spend a week in the neighbourhood; the first three
days as Honoria's guest. On the Saturday he consecrated the work of
restoration in the church, and in the afternoon held a confirmation
service. Taffy and Honoria knelt together to receive his blessing.
It was the girl's wish. The shadow of her responsibility to God and
man lay heavy on her during the few months before her marriage: and
Taffy, already weary and dispirited with his early doubtings,
suffered her mood of exaltation to overcome him like a wave and sweep
him back to rest for a while on the still waters of faith.
Together they listened while the Bishop discoursed on the dead
Vicar's labours with fluency and feeling; with so much feeling,
indeed, that Taffy could not help wondering why his father had been
left to fight the battle alone.

On the Sunday and Monday two near parishe