rs, they let their eyes fall calmly on the Tinley pew. Could two
men upon this earthly sphere possess such a bearskin? There towered the
shoulders of Mr. Pericles; his head looking diminished by the hugeous
collar. Arabella felt a seizure of her hand from Adela's side. She placed
her book open before her, and stared at the pulpit. From neither of the
three of Brookfield could Laura's observation extract a sign of the utter
astonishment she knew they must be experiencing; and had it not been for
the ingenuous broad whisper of Mrs. Chump, which sounded toward the verge
even of her conception of possibilities, the Tinleys would not have been
gratified by the first public display of the prize they had wrested from
the Poles.

"Mr. Paricles--oh!" went Mrs. Chump, and a great many pews were set in
commotion.

Forthwith she bent over Cornelia's lap, and Cornelia, surveying her
placidly, had to murmur, "By-and-by; by-and-by."

"But, did ye see 'm, my dear? and a forr'ner in a Protestant Church! And
such a forr'ner as he is, to be sure! And, ye know, ye said he'd naver
come with you, and it's them creatures ye don't like. Corrnelia!"

"The service commences," remarked that lady, standing up.

Many eyes were on Mr. Pericles, who occasionally inspected the cornices
and corbels and stained glass to right and left, or detected a young lady
staring at him, or anticipated her going to stare, and put her to
confusion by a sharp turn of his head, and then a sniff and smoothing
down of his moustache. But he did not once look at the Brookfield pew. By
hazard his eye ranged over it, and after the first performance of this
trick he would have found the ladies a match for him, even if he had
sought to challenge their eyes. They were constrained to admit that Laura
Tinley managed him cleverly. She made him hold a book and appear
respectably devout. She got him down in good time when seats were taken,
and up again, without much transparent persuasion. The first notes of the
organ were seen to agitate the bearskin. Laura had difficulty to induce
the man to rise for the hymn, and when he had listened to the intoning of
a verse, Mr. Pericles suddenly bent, as if he had snapped in two: nor
could Laura persuade him to rejoin the present posture of the
congregation. Then only did Laura, to cover her failure, turn the subdued
light of a merry smile upon the Brookfield pew.

The smile was noticed by Apprehension sitting in the corner of one eye,