ingly reminded me of my chief difficulty in
refusing. It is the sacred purpose which makes me doubt my own
judgment. It would be a painful reflection to think that the temple
should suffer by my refusing this gift. Maybe I should be yielding to
my own petulance or personal motives if I were to decline. I must not
let my pride stand in the way of higher obligations."

He concluded in his best pulpit manner, and the farce was soon at an
end. It was agreed that the gift must be accepted, that proper measures
should be taken to rebuke Mr Westray's presumption, as _he_ had no
doubt induced Lord Blandamer to select so improper a channel of
communication, and that the Rector should himself write direct to thank
the noble donor. So, after dinner, Canon Parkyn retired to his "study,"
and composed a properly fulsome letter, in which he attributed all the
noblest possible motives and qualities to Lord Blandamer, and invoked
all the most unctuously conceived blessings upon his head. And at
teatime the letter was perused and revised by Mrs Parkyn, who added
some finishing touches of her own, especially a preamble which stated
that Canon Parkyn had been informed by the clerk of the works that Lord
Blandamer had expressed a desire to write to Canon Parkyn to make a
certain offer, but had asked the clerk of the works to find out first
whether such an offer would be acceptable to Canon Parkyn, and a
peroration which hoped that Lord Blandamer would accept the hospitality
of the Rectory on the occasion of his next visit to Cullerne.

The letter reached Lord Blandamer at Fording the next morning as he sat
over a late breakfast, with a Virgil open on the table by his
coffee-cup. He read the Rector's stilted periods without a smile, and
made a mental note that he would at once send a specially civil
acknowledgment. Then he put it carefully into his pocket, and turned
back to the _Di patrii indigetes et Romule Vestaque Mater_ of the First
Georgic, which he was committing to memory, and banished the invitation
so completely from his mind that he never thought of it again till he
was in Cullerne a week later.

Lord Blandamer's visit, and the offer which he had made for the
restoration of the church, formed the staple of Cullerne conversation
for a week. All those who had been fortunate enough to see or to speak
to him discussed him with one another, and compared notes. Scarcely a
detail of his personal appearance, of his voice or m