ong their friends.

After six weeks' absence Mr. and Mrs. Carling returned, and the simple
story of the rector's courtship and marriage was gathered together in
fragments, by inquisitive friends, from his own lips and from the lips
of his wife.

Mr. Carling and Mrs. Duncan had met at Torquay. The rector, who had
exchanged houses and duties for the season with a brother clergyman
settled at Torquay, had called on Mrs. Duncan in his clerical capacity,
and had come away from the interview deeply impressed and interested
by the widow's manners and conversation. The visits were repeated; the
acquaintance grew into friendship, and the friendship into love--ardent,
devoted love on both sides.

Middle-aged man though he was, this was Mr. Carling's first attachment,
and it was met by the same freshness of feeling on the lady's part. Her
life with her first husband had not been a happy one. She had made the
fatal mistake of marrying to please her parents rather than herself, and
had repented it ever afterward. On her husband's death his family had
not behaved well to her, and she had passed her widowhood, with her only
child, a daughter, in the retirement of a small Scotch town many miles
away from the home of her married life. After a time the little girl's
health had begun to fail, and, by the doctor's advice, she had migrated
southward to the mild climate of Torquay. The change had proved to be
of no avail; and, rather more than a year since, the child had died.
The place where her darling was buried was a sacred place to her and
she remained a resident at Torquay. Her position in the world was now
a lonely one. She was herself an only child; her father and mother were
both dead; and, excepting cousins, her one near relation left alive was
a maternal uncle living in London.

These particulars were all related simply and unaffectedly before Mr.
Carling ventured on the confession of his attachment. When he made
his proposal of marriage, Mrs. Duncan received it with an excess
of agitation which astonished and almost alarmed the inexperienced
clergyman. As soon as she could speak, she begged with extraordinary
earnestness and anxiety for a week to consider her answer, and requested
Mr. Carling not to visit her on any account until the week had expired.

The next morning she and her maid departed for London. They did not
return until the week for consideration had expired. On the eighth day
Mr. Carling called again and was acc