ion.

'What is all this noise, Mosk?' he cried sharply. 'Do you wish to lose
your license?'

Mosk, who was seated in an arm-chair, smiling and singing, with a very
red face, was struck dumb by the chaplain's sudden entrance and sharp
rebuke. Bell, flushed and angered, was also astonished to see Mr
Cargrim, but hailed his arrival with joy as likely to have some moral
influence on her riotous father. Personally she detested Cargrim, but
she respected his cloth, and was glad to see him wield the thunders of
his clerical position.

'That is right, Mr Cargrim!' she cried with flashing eyes. 'Tell him he
ought to be ashamed of drinking and singing with mother so ill
upstairs.'

'I don't mean t'do any 'arm,' said Mosk, rising sheepishly, for the
shock of Cargrim's appearance sobered him a good deal. 'I wos jus'
havin' a glass to celebrate a joyful day.'

'Cannot you take your glass without becoming intoxicated?' said Cargrim,
in disgust. 'I tell you what, Mosk, if you go on in this way, I shall
make it my business to warn Sir Harry Brace against you.'

'I told you how t'would be, father,' put in Bell, reproachfully.

'You onnatural child, goin' agin your parent,' growled Mr Mosk. 'Wasn't
I drinking to your health, 'cause the old 'un at Heathcroft wos passin'
to his long 'ome? Tell me that!'

'What do you mean, Mosk?' asked the chaplain, starting.

'Nothing, sir,' interposed Bell, hurriedly. 'Father don't know what he
is sayin'.'

'Yes, I do,' contradicted her father, sulkily. 'Old Mr Leigh, th' pass'n
of Heathcroft, is dying, and when he dies you'll live at Heathcroft
with--'

'Father! father! hold your tongue!'

'With my son-in-law Gabriel!'

'Your--son-in-law,' gasped Cargrim, recoiling. 'Is--is your daughter the
wife of young Mr Pendle?'

'No, I am not, Mr Cargrim,' cried Bell, nervously. 'It's father's
nonsense.'

'It's Bible truth, savin' your presence,' said Mosk, striking the table.
'Young Mr Pendle is engaged to marry you, ain't he? and he's goin' to
hev the livin' of Heathcroft, ain't he? and old Leigh's a-dyin' fast,
ain't he?'

'Go on, father, you've done it now,' said Bell, resignedly, and sat
down.

Cargrim was almost too surprised to speak. The rector of
Heathcroft--dying; Gabriel engaged to marry this common woman. He looked
from one to the other in amazement; at the triumphant Mosk, and the
blushing girl.

'Is this true, Miss Mosk?' he asked doubtfully.

'Yes! I am engaged to marry G