re say I am
not just. You know I always did think Mr. Moy could have cleared
Archie if he would," she added, with a slightly trembling tone.

"So did I," said Raymond. "I gave him the opportunity after George
Proudfoot's death; but when the choice lay between two memories, one
could hardly wonder if he preferred to shield his brother-in-law."

"Or himself!" said Jenny, under her breath.

"Come, Jenny," said Julius, feeling that the moment for interruption
had come, "it is time we should be off. Methinks there are sounds
as if the whole canine establishment at Mrs. Hornblower's were
prancing up to meet us."

So it proved; and Jenny had to run the gauntlet through the
ecstasies of all the dogs, whose ecclesiastical propriety was quite
overthrown, for they danced about her to the very threshold of the
church, and had to have the door shut on their very noses. That
drop of bitterness, which her sad brief story could not fail to have
left in poor Joanna's heart, either passed out of mind in what
followed, or was turned into the prayer, "And to turn their hearts;"
and she was her bright self again for her promised assistance at the
school.

Then Herbert's address was, "Come, Joan, I promised to take you to
see the Reeves's pheasant at the Outwood Lodge. Such a jolly old
woman!"

"The pheasant?"

"No; the keeper's mother. Tail a yard long! I don't see why we
shouldn't turn them out at home. If father won't take it up, I
shall write to Phil."

"Thank you, Herbs. Hadn't you better secure a little reading first?
I could wait; I've got to write to Will."

"The post doesn't go till five."

"But I want to get it done. The mail goes to-morrow."

"You'll do it much better after a walk. I can't understand anything
after the fumes of the school, unless I do a bit of visiting first;
and that pheasant is a real stunner. It really is parish work,
Jenny. Look here, this is what I'm reading her."

"_Learn to die_!" said Jenny, laughing heartily. "Nothing could be
more appropriate, only you should have begun before October."

"You choose to make fun of everything!" answered Herbert, gruffly;
and Jenny, deciding that she would see a specimen day, made her
peace by consenting to share in the pastoral visit, whether to
pheasant or peasant. Indeed, a walk with Herbert was one of the
prime pleasures of her life--and this was delightful, along broad
gravelled drives through the autumnal woods with tinted beech-leave