hat. I've always said it was quite a pleasure
to see you and your uncle together. And when we heard about your all
having to leave--"

"But we didn't have to leave, Mrs Boyce. We were going to leave
because we thought mamma would be more comfortable in Guestwick;
and now we're not going to leave, because we've all 'changed our
mindses,' as Mrs Crump calls it."

"And is it true the house is going to be painted?" asked Mrs Boyce.

"I believe it is true," said Lily.

"Inside and out?"

"It must be done some day," said Bell.

"Yes, to be sure; but I must say it is generous of the squire.
There's such a deal of wood-work about your house. I know I wish the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners would paint ours; but nobody ever does
anything for the clergy. I'm sure I'm delighted you're going to stay.
As I said to Mr Boyce, what should we ever have done without you? I
believe the squire had made up his mind that he would not let the
place."

"I don't think he ever has let it."

"And if there was nobody in it, it would all go to rack and ruin;
wouldn't it? Had your mamma to pay anything for the lodgings she
engaged at Guestwick?"

"Upon my word, I don't know. Bell can tell you better about that
than I, as Dr Crofts settled it. I suppose Dr Crofts tells her
everything." And so the conversation was changed, and Mrs Boyce was
made to understand that whatever further mystery there might be, it
would not be unravelled on that occasion.

It was settled that Dr Crofts and Bell should be married about the
middle of June, and the squire determined to give what grace he could
to the ceremony by opening his own house on the occasion. Lord De
Guest and Lady Julia were invited by special arrangement between her
ladyship and Bell, as has been before explained. The colonel also
with Lady Fanny came up from Torquay on the occasion, this being the
first visit made by the colonel to his paternal roof for many years.
Bernard did not accompany his father. He had not yet gone abroad, but
there were circumstances which made him feel that he would not find
himself comfortable at the wedding. The service was performed by
Mr Boyce, assisted, as the _County Chronicle_ very fully remarked,
by the Reverend John Joseph Jones, M.A., late of Jesus College,
Cambridge, and curate of St. Peter's, Northgate, Guestwick; the
fault of which little advertisement was this,--that as none of the
readers of the paper had patience to get beyond the Reverend John
J