against the further wall, which the parish mostly took when
the bumpkins had anything to say to the parson. A large writing-table,
fitted with capacious drawers, stood in the middle of the room, of which
one side was for parish business, the other magisterial: for the rector
of Underwood was also a justice of the peace, and very active in that
respect. He was a man who did not fail in his duty in any way. His
sermons he kept in a handsome old carved-oak bureau against the wall,
where--for he had been a dozen years in Underwood, and had worked
through all the fasts and feasts a great many times--he had executed a
classification, and knew where to put his hand on the Christmas sermons,
and those for the saints' days, and even for exceptional occasions, such
as funerals, almost in the dark. Two large windows, one of which opened
upon the lawn, and the other, round the corner, in the other wall of the
house, commanded a pretty view of the village, lying with its red roofs
in the midst of a luxuriant greenness. Saint Mary-under-wood was the
true name of the parish, for it lay in a part of the country which was
very rich in trees.

Here he sat down with his friend's letter, and thought. The Cavendishes
had once held an important position in the county, and lived in one of
the greatest "places" in the neighbourhood. But they had met with a fate
not unknown to the greatest favourites, and had descended from their
greatness to mediocrity, without, however, sacrificing everything, and
indeed with so good a margin that, though they were no longer included
among the most eminent gentry of England, they still held the place of
a county family. They had shifted their headquarters to a much smaller
house, but it was one which had already been possessed by them before
they became great. The younger sons, however, had very little to look
to, and Dick, who was considered clever, was going to the bar. He was a
friend, more or less, of young Warrender's, and had been at Oxford with
him, where he was junior to Theo in the university, though his senior in
years. For Dick had been a little erratic in his ways. He had not been
so orderly and law-abiding as a young English gentleman generally is. He
had gone away from home very young, and spent several years in wandering
before he would address himself to serious life. He had been in Canada
and in the backwoods, and though California was not known then as now,
had spent a few months at the gold