ed forth from their hives, and hummed with
cheery droning chorus in the ivy-berries that covered the wall-tops with
deep purple. The old vanes on the corner pinnacles of Saint Sepulchre's
tower shone as if they had been regilt. Great flocks of plovers flew
wheeling over Cullerne marsh, and flashed with a blinking silver gleam
as they changed their course suddenly. Even through the open window of
the organist's room fell a shaft of golden sunlight that lit up the
peonies of the faded, threadbare carpet.

But inside beat two poor human hearts, one unhappy and one hopeless, and
saw nothing of the gold vanes, or the purple ivy-berries, or the
plovers, or the sunlight, and heard nothing of the birds or the bees.

"Yes, I will give it up," said the organist, though not quite so
enthusiastically as before; and as he moved closer to Anastasia Joliffe,
she got up and left the room, laughing as she went out.

"I must get the potatoes peeled, or you will have none for dinner."

Mr Westray, being afflicted neither with poverty nor age, but having a
good digestion and entire confidence both in himself and in his
prospects, could fully enjoy the beauty of the day. He walked this
morning as a child of the light, forsaking the devious back-ways through
which the organist had led him on the previous night, and choosing the
main streets on his road to the church. He received this time a
different impression of the town. The heavy rain had washed the
pavements and roadway, and as he entered the Market Square he was struck
with the cheerfulness of the prospect, and with the air of quiet
prosperity which pervaded the place.

On two sides of the square the houses overhung the pavement, and formed
an arcade supported on squat pillars of wood. Here were situated some
of the best "establishments," as their owners delighted to call them.
Custance, the grocer; Rose and Storey, the drapers, who occupied the
fronts of no less than three houses, and had besides a "department"
round the corner "exclusively devoted to tailoring"; Lucy, the
bookseller, who printed the _Cullerne Examiner_, and had published
several of Canon Parkyn's sermons, as well as a tractate by Dr Ennefer
on the means adopted in Cullerne for the suppression of cholera during
the recent outbreak; Calvin, the saddler; Miss Adcutt, of the toy-shop;
and Prior, the chemist, who was also postmaster. In the middle of the
third side stood the Blandamer Arms, with a long front o