served to Anna, and
he could have tackled them singly, but not when they were piled on ad
nauseum. But the Japanese college had been largely discussed in his
special circle, and also in the paper of which he was the editor--the
Times had even devoted one of its columns to the subject; and Mrs.
Herrick had been secretly much gratified by Malcolm's readiness to be
present.

"The Bishop will be with us," she said, with an inflexion of pride in
her tone; "he is over here just now on account of his wife's health,
and has promised to take the chair." Then Malcolm signified his perfect
willingness to make his Lordship's acquaintance, and to listen to any
amount of speeches; and Mrs. Herrick had gone to her bed that night a
happy woman.

Why could not Malcolm be always like that? she thought, and then she
sighed gently as she took her Bible in her hand.

It opened of its own accord at Samuel's childhood and Hannah's solemn
dedication of her first-born; no passages in the well-read book had
been more frequently perused.

Of all the characters of holy writ, this Jewish mother appealed most
forcibly to her imagination: the little coat brought year by year to
the Temple child, the precious sacrifice and oblation made in gratitude
for an answered prayer, the pride and joy of the mother's heart, as she
stood in the court of the women and saw her boy ministering in his fair
linen ephod, seemed to touch her irresistibly, and in her secret soul
she had envied Hannah.

The evening was to be devoted to this important meeting, but the next
day Malcolm had promised to take Anna for an outing--it would be her
birthday--and already they had made and rejected many plans. Kew,
Richmond, Hampton Court, and Henley had all been proposed; but Anna had
been indifferent to each. She had been to the Royal Academy more than
once, and all the best concerts were over; the weather was too hot for
sight-seeing, and in her present state of languor she dreaded fatigue
and crowds. "What did the place matter after all," she said to herself,
"as long as Malcolm was with her? Her rest and enjoyment were in his
society--to sit beside him and listen to his dear voice, and tell him
all her little joys and troubles."

The programme was still a blank when Malcolm knocked at his mother's
door. Anderson received him with a beaming face. The old man had grown
a trifle stiff and rheumatic of late years, but he still kept a sharp
eye on his coadjutor--the weak-min