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'Somewhere in the East End of London,' the earl answered. 'Oh, I remember now, St. Gabriel's, Aldgate.'

The archdeacon turned silently to the clergyman.

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He was my uncle,' Lindo explained gravely. He died a year ago last October.' 'Died!' The exclamation was Lord Dynmore's.

'Yes, died,' the young man retorted bitterly. "Your lordship keeps a watchful eye upon your friends, it seems!'

The shaft went home. The earl caught a quick breath, and his face fell. The words awoke a slumbering chord in his memory, and recalled-not, as might have been expected, old days of frolic and sport spent with the friend whose death was thus coldly flung in his face-but a scene in another world. He saw in fancy a rock-bound valley, inclosed by hills which rose in giant steps to the snowy line of the Andes; and in its depths a tiny hunter's camp. He saw an Indian fishing in the brook, and near him a white man wandering away—a letter in his hand. Then he remembered a shot, an alarm, a hasty striking of the tent, and for many hours, even days, a rapid, dangerous march. In the excitement the letter had been forgotten, to be recalled with its tidings —here, and now.

He winced, and muttered, 'By heavens, and I had heard it!' The clergyman caught the words, and his resentment waxed hot. My uncle's death,' he resumed grimly, in the tone of one rather making than answering an accusation, occurred a year before the presentation was offered to me by your solicitors!'

6

'Lord help us!' said the peer in a helpless, bewildered tone. 'You are a clergyman, sir, I suppose?'

'That is a fresh insult, Lord Dynmore!' Lindo replied warmly.

'Hoity-toity!' my lord retorted, recovering himself quickly, 'you are a fine man to talk of insults! And you in my living without a shadow of title to it! You must have had some suspicion, sir, some idea that all was not right.'

'I think I can answer for Mr. Lindo there!' interposed the curate, stepping forward for the first time. His face was deeply flushed, and he spoke hurriedly, without looking up; perhaps, because all eyes were on him. 'When Mr. Lindo came here, I expected, for certain reasons, an older man. I heard by chance from him—I think it was on the evening of his arrival-that he had not long lost an uncle of the same name, and it occurred to me then as just possible that there might have been a mistake.

VOL. XVII.-NO. 100, N.S.

17

But I particularly observed that he was perfectly free from any suspicion of that kind himself.'

"Pooh! There is nothing in that!' the archdeacon replied snappishly.

6

'On the contrary, I think there is a great deal in it!' cried the earl in a voice of triumph. A great deal in it. If the idea occurred to a stranger, is it possible that the incumbent's own mind could be free from it? Is it possible, I say?'

'Is it possible,' the rector answered viciously, a ring as of steel in his voice, 'that a man who had his dear friend's death announced to him could forget the news in a year, and think of him as still alive?'

Never before had anyone

The earl gasped with passion. addressed him in that way. By a tremendous effort he refrained from using bad words; he even forbore, in view of the alarmed looks of the ladies and the archdeacon's hasty expostulation, to call his opponent a villain or a scoundrel. He only stammered, 'You-you-are you going to give up my living?'

'No,' was the answer.

'You are not?'

'Certainly I am not!' the rector repeated. 'If you had treated me differently, Lord Dynmore,' he continued, speaking with his arms crossed and his lips set tight in contempt and defiance, 'my answer might have been different! Now, though the mistake has lain with yourself or your people, you have accused me of fraud! You have treated me as an impostor! You have dared to ask me, though I have been ministering to the people in this parish for months, whether I am a clergyman! You have insulted me grossly, and, so doing, have put it out of my power to resign had I been so minded! And you may be sure I shall not resign.'

He looked a very hero as he flung down his defiance. But the earl cared nothing for his looks. You will not?' he stuttered.

"No! I acknowledge no authority whatever in you,' was the answer. You are functus officio. I am subject to the bishop, and to him only.'

'Give me my hat,' the peer mumbled, turning abruptly away; and, tugging up the collar of his coat, he began to grope about in a manner which at another time would have been laughable. 'Give me my hat, some one,' he repeated. 'Let me get out before I swear.

I am functus officio, am I? I have never been so in

sulted in my life! Never, so help me heaven! Never! Let me get out! Functus officio, am I!'

They made way for him in a kind of panic, and his murmurs died away in the hall, Mr. Clode with much presence of mind opening the door for him and letting him out. When he was gone, in the room he had left there was absolute silence. The men avoided one another's eyes. The women, their lips parted, looked each at her neighbour. Mrs. Homfray, the young wife of an old husband, was the first to speak. Well, I never!' she murmured. What an old bear!'

That broke the spell. The rector, who had stood gazing darkly, with flushed brow and compressed lips, at the hearthrug, roused himself. "I think I had better go,' he said, his tone cold and ungracious. You will excuse me, I am sure, Mrs. Hammond. Good night. Good night.'

The archdeacon took a step forward, with the intention of intercepting him ; but thought better of it, and stopped, seeing that the time was not propitious. So, save to murmur an answer to his general farewell, no one spoke; and Lindo left the room under the impression, though he himself had set the tone, that he stood alone among them—that he had not their sympathies. He carried away this feeling with him, and it added to his unhappiness, and to the pride with which he endured it. But at the moment he was scarcely aware of the impression. The blow had fallen so swiftly, it was so unexpected and so crushing, that he went out into the darkness stunned and bewildered, conscious only, as are men whom some sudden accident has befallen, that in a moment all was changed with him.

An hour later Mrs. Hammond and her daughter alone remained. The last of the visitors had departed, the dinner hour was long past; but they still sat on, fascinated by the topic, reproducing for one another's benefit the extraordinary scene they had witnessed, and discussing its probable consequences. I am sure, absolutely sure, poor fellow, that he knew nothing about it,' Mrs. Hammond declared for the twentieth time.

'So the archdeacon seemed to think, mamma,' Laura answered. 'And yet he said that probably Mr. Lindo would have to go.'

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But

'Because of the miserable attacks these people have made upon him!' Mrs. Hammond rejoined with indignation. think of the pity of it! Think of the income! And such a house as it is!'

'It is a nice house,' Laura assented, gazing thoughtfully into the fire, a slight access of colour in her cheeks.

'I think it is abominable!'

'Besides,' Laura said, continuing her chain of reflection, 'there is the view from the drawing-room windows.'

'Of course, it is too bad! It is really too bad! I declare I am quite upset, I am so sorry for him. Lord Dynmore ought to be ashamed of himself!'

'Yes,' Laura assented rather absently, 'I quite agree with you, mamma. And as for the hall, with a Persian rug or two it would be quite as good as an extra room.'

'What hall? Oh, at the rectory?'

'Yes.'

Mrs. Hammond rose with a quick, pettish air of annoyance. 'Upon my word, Laura,' she exclaimed, drawing a little shawl about her comfortable shoulders, 'you seem to think more of the house than of the poor fellow himself! Let us go to dinner. It is half-past eight, and after.'

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LAWYER AT HOME.

IF Mr. Clode, when he stepped forward to open the door for Lord Dynmore, had any thought beyond that of facilitating his departure -if, for instance, he anticipated having a private word with the peer-he was disappointed. Lord Dynmore, after what had happened, was in no mood for conversation. As, still muttering and mumbling, he seized his hat from the hall table, he did indeed notice his companion, but it was with the red and angry glare of a bull about to charge. The next moment he plunged headlong into his brougham, and roared 'Home.'

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His servants knew his ways, and the carriage bounded away into the darkness of the drive, as if it would reach the Park at a leap. But it had barely cleared Mrs. Hammond's gates, and was still rattling over the stony pavement of the Top of the Town, when the footman heard his master lower the window and shout Stop!' The horses were pulled up as suddenly as they had been started, and the man got down and went to the door. 'Do you know where Mr. Bonamy the lawyer's offices are?' Lord Dynmore asked curtly. 'Yes, my lord.'

'Then drive there!'

The footman climbed to the box again. What has bitten him now, I wonder?' he grumbled to his companion as he passed on the order. He is in a fine tantrum in there!'

'Who cares?' retorted the coachman, with a coachman's fine independence. 'If old Bonamy is in, there will be a pair of them!'

And Mr. Bonamy was in. In that particular Lord Dynmore had better luck than he perhaps deserved. Late as it was for business -it was after seven-the gas was still burning in the lawyer's offices, illuminating the fanlight over the door and the windows of one of the rooms on the ground floor-the right-hand room. The servant jumped down and rapped, and his summons was answered almost immediately by Mr. Bonamy himself, who jerked open the door, and stood holding it ajar, with the air of a man interrupted in the middle of his work, and bent on sending the intruder off with a flea in his ear. Catching sight of the earl's carriage, however, and the servant murmuring that my lord wished to see him on business, the lawyer stepped forward, his expression changing to one of surprise.

The Dynmore business had been always transacted in London. In cases where a country agent became necessary the London solicitors had invariably employed a firm in Birmingham. Neither Mr. Bonamy nor the other Claversham lawyer had ever risen to the dignity of being concerned for Lord Dynmore, nor could Mr. Bonamy recall any occasion in the past on which the great man had crossed the threshold of his office.

His appearance now, therefore, was almost as welcome as it was unexpected. Yet from some cause, perhaps the lateness of the hour, though that would seem to be improbable, there was a visible embarrassment in the lawyer's manner as he recognised him; and Mr. Bonamy only stepped aside to make way for him to enter upon hearing from his own lips that he desired to speak with him.

'If

you

Then he opened the door of the room on the left of the hall. your lordship will take a seat here,' he said, 'I will be with in a moment.'

The room was in darkness, but he struck a match and lit the gas, placing a chair for Lord Dynmore, who, fretting and fuming and more than half inclined to walk out again, said sharply that he had only a minute to spare.

'I shall not be a minute, my lord,' the lawyer answered.

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