happened? Oh, of course, the sermon! How stupid of me! Do you
know I forgot all about it?"

"You were not there, then?"

"Don't ask me. Really, I'm ashamed; after my promise to grandfather, too!
But Wednesday doesn't count anyway, does it? You'll preach on Sunday--and
then!"

His feeling of relief was followed by a sense of deeper humiliation.
Glory had not even troubled herself to remember. Evidently he was nothing
to her, nothing; while she----

He walked home through St. James's Park, and under the tall trees the
peaceful silence of the night came down on him. The sharp clack of the
streets was deadened to a low hum as of the sea afar off. Across the
gardens he could see the clock in the tower of Westminster, and hear the
great bell strike the quarters. London! How little and selfish all
personal thoughts were in the contemplation of the mighty city! He had
been thinking only of himself and his own little doings. It was all so
small and pitiful!

"Did my shame at my failure in the pulpit proceed solely from fear of
losing the service of God, or did it proceed from wounded ambition, from
pride, from thoughts of Glory----"

But the peaceful stars were over him. It was a majestic night.

VII.

"Martha's Vineyard.

"Dear Auntie Rachel: Tell grandpa, to begin with, that John Storm
preached his first sermon on Wednesday last, and, according to programme,
I was there to hear it. Oh, God bless me! What a time I had of it! He
broke down in the middle, taking stage fright or pulpit fright or some
such devilry, though there was nothing to be afraid of except a
bandboxful of chattering girls who didn't listen, and a few old fogies
with ear-trumpets. I was sitting in the darkness at the back, effectually
concealed from the preacher by the broad shoulders of Ward Sister
Allworthy, who is an example of 'delicate femaleism' just verging on
old-maidenism. They tell me the 'discoorse' was a short one, but I never
got so many prayers into the time in all my born days, and my breath was
coming and going so fast that the Sister must have thought they had set
up a pumping-engine in the pew behind her. Our poor, heavy-laden Mr.
Storm has been here since then with his sad and eager face, but I hadn't
the stuff in me to tell him the truth about the sermon, so I told him I
had forgotten to go and hear it, and may the Lord have mercy on my soul!

"You want to know how I employ my time? Well, lest you should think I
give up m