ith and belief, Marion, in a whisper loud enough to be
overheard, exclaimed, "I was sure of it. It was one of those priestly
indiscretions; he would come talking to papa about what he calls his
soul's health, and in this way brought on the excitement."

"Did you not perceive, sir," asked she, fiercely, "that the topic was
too much for his nerves? Did it not occur to you that the moment was
inopportune for a very exciting subject?"

"Was his manner easy and natural when you saw him first?" asked
Augustus.

"Had he been reading that debate on Servia?" inquired Temple.

"Matter enough there, by Jove, to send the blood to a man's head," cried
Culduff, warmly.

"I 'm convinced it was all religious," chimed in Marion, who triumphed
mercilessly over the poor parson's confusion. "It is what they call 'in
season and out of season,' and they are true to their device; for no men
on earth more heartily defy the dictates of tact or delicacy."

"Oh, Marion, what are you saying?" whispered Nelly.

"It's no time for honeyed words, Ellen, in the presence of a heavy
calamity; but I 'd like to ask Mr. L'Estrange why, when he saw the
danger of the theme they were discussing, he did not try to change the
topic."

"So I did. I led him to talk of myself and my interests."

"An admirable antidote to excitement, certainly," muttered Culduff to
Temple, who seemed to relish the joke intensely.

"You say that my father had been reading his letters. Did he appear to
have received any tidings to call for unusual anxiety?" asked Augustus.

"I found him, as I thought, looking very ill, careworn almost, when I
entered. He had been writing, and seemed fatigued and exhausted. His
first remark to me was, I remember, a mistake." L'Estrange here stopped,
suddenly. He did not desire to repeat the speech about being invited to
the picnic. It would have been an awkwardness on all sides.

"What do you call a mistake, sir?" asked Marion, calmly.

"I mean he asked me something which a clearer memory would have reminded
him not to have inquired after."

"This grows interesting. Perhaps you will enlighten us a little
farther, and say what the blunder was."

"Well, he asked me how it happened that Julia and myself were not of the
picnic; forgetting, of course, that we--we had not heard of it." A
deep flush was now spread over his face and forehead, and he looked
overwhelmed with shame.

"I see it all; I see the whole thing," said Marion, triumphan