y have known while he wrote that
it would be rejected.

The outlook appeared exceedingly hopeless. Mr. Churchouse rose from his
desk and looked out of the window. It was a grey and silent morning.
Only a big magnolia leaf tapped at the casement and dripped rain from
its point. And overhead, in her chamber, Sabina was lying stricken and
speechless. With infinite commiseration Mr. Churchouse considered what
this must mean to her. It was as though Mrs. Dinnett's hysterical words
had come true. Indeed, the tender-hearted man felt that death was in
his house--death of fair hopes, death of a young and trusting spirit.

"The rising generation puts a strain on Christianity that I'm sure it
was never called to bear in my youth," reflected Mr. Churchouse.

CHAPTER XXIV

MRS. NORTHOVER DECIDES

When Richard Gurd began to consider the case of Nelly Northover, his
mind was very curiously affected. To develop the stages by which he
arrived at his startling conclusions might be attractive, but the
destination is more important than the journey. After twenty-four hours
devoted to this subject alone, Richard had not only decided that Nelly
Northover must not marry Job Legg; he had pushed the problem of his
friend far beyond that point and found it already complicated by a
greater than Job.

Indeed, the sudden reminder that Nelly was a comely and personable woman
had affected Richard Gurd, and the thought that she should contemplate
marriage caused him some preliminary uneasiness. He could no more see
her married again than he could see himself taking a wife; yet from this
attitude, progress was swift, and the longer he thought upon Mrs.
Northover, the more steadily did his mind drive him into an opinion that
she might reasonably wed again if she desired to do so. And then he
proceeded to the personal concession that there was no radical necessity
to remain single himself. Because he had reached his present ripe age
without a wife, it did not follow he must remain for ever unmarried. He
had no objection to marriage, and continued a bachelor merely because he
had never found any woman desirable in his eyes. Moreover he disliked
children.

He had reached this stage of the argument before he slept, and when he
woke again, he found his mind considerably advanced along the road to
Nelly. He now came to the deliberate conclusion that he wanted her. The
discovery amazed him, but he could not escape it; and in the light of
such