dgeons and
skinflints."

"You will forgive me, Mr Sharnall," said the Rector, "if I remark that
an hereditary peerage is so important an institution, that we should be
very careful how we criticise any members of it. At the same time," he
went on, turning apologetically to Westray, "there is perhaps a modicum
of reason in our friend's remarks. I had hoped that Lord Blandamer
would have contributed handsomely to the restoration fund, but he has
not hitherto done so, though I dare say that his continued absence
abroad accounts for some delay. He only succeeded his grandfather last
year, and the late lord never showed much interest in this place, and
was indeed in many ways a very strange character. But it's no use
raking up these stories; the old man is gone, and we must hope for
better things from the young one."

"I don't know why you call him young," said the doctor. "He's young,
maybe, compared to his grandfather, who died at eighty-five; but he must
be forty, if he's a day."

"Oh, impossible; and yet I don't know. It was in my first year at
Cullerne that his father and mother were drowned. You remember that,
Mr Sharnall--when the _Corisande_ upset in Pallion Bay?"

"Ay, I mind that well enough," struck in the clerk; "and I mind their
being married, becos' we wor ringing of the bells, when old Mason
Parmiter run into the church, and says: `Do'ant-'ee, boys--do'ant-'ee
ring 'em any more. These yere old tower'll never stand it. I see him
rock,' he says, `and the dust a-running out of the cracks like rain.'
So out we come, and glad enough to stop it, too, because there wos a
feast down in the meadows by the London Road, and drinks and dancing,
and we wanted to be there. That were two-and-forty years ago come Lady
Day, and there was some shook their heads, and said we never ought to
have stopped the ring, for a broken peal broke life or happiness. But
what was we to do?"

"Did they strengthen the tower afterwards?" Westray asked. "Do you
find any excessive motion when the peal is rung now?"

"Lor' bless you, sir; them bells was never rung for thirty years afore
that, and wouldn't a been rung then, only Tom Leech, he says: `The ropes
is there, boys; let's have a ring out of these yere tower. He ain't
been rung for thirty year. None on us don't recollect the last time he
_was_ rung, and if 'er were weak then, 'ers had plenty of time to get
strong again, and there'll be half a crown a man for ringing of