irebrace, whose
husband in another part of the room had caught Mr Jermyn, and was
opening his mind on "the question of the day;" Lady Maud, followed
by Egremont, approached Mr St Lys, and said, "Mr Egremont has a great
feeling for Christian architecture, Mr St Lys, and wishes particularly
to visit our church of which we are so proud." And in a few moments they
were seated together and engaged in conversation.

Lord Mowbray placed himself by the side of Lady Marney, who was seated
by his countess.

"Oh! how I envy you at Marney," he exclaimed. "No manufactures, no
smoke; living in the midst of a beautiful park and surrounded by a
contented peasantry!"

"It is very delightful," said Lady Marney, "but then we are so very
dull; we have really no neighbourhood."

"I think that such a great advantage," said Lady Mowbray: "I must say
I like my friends from London. I never know what to say to the people
here. Excellent people, the very best people in the world; the way they
behaved to poor dear Fitz-Warene, when they wanted him to stand for
the county, I never can forget; but then they do not know the people we
know, or do the things we do; and when you have gone through the routine
of county questions, and exhausted the weather and all the winds, I am
positively, my dear Lady Marney, aux abois, and then they think you are
proud, when really one is only stupid."

"I am very fond of work," said Lady Marney, "and I talk to them always
about it."

"Ah! you are fortunate, I never could work; and Joan and Maud, they
neither of them work. Maud did embroider a banner once for her brother;
it is in the hail. I think it beautiful; but somehow or other she never
cultivated her talent."

"For all that has occurred or may occur," said Mr St Lys to Egremont,
"I blame only the Church. The church deserted the people; and from that
moment the church has been in danger and the people degraded. Formerly
religion undertook to satisfy the noble wants of human nature, and by
its festivals relieved the painful weariness of toil. The day of rest
was consecrated, if not always to elevated thought, at least to sweet
and noble sentiments. The church convened to its solemnities under its
splendid and almost celestial roofs amid the finest monuments of art
that human hands have raised, the whole Christian population; for there,
in the presence of God, all were brethren. It shared equally among all
its prayer, its incense, and its music; its sacre