mured Merton.

'And then Remorse has set in, with all her horrors. Julia has wept, oh!
for nights, on my shoulder.'

'Happy shoulder,' murmured Merton.

'And so, as she _dare_ not shatter their ideals, and perhaps cause them
to plunge into excesses, moral or doctrinal, this is what she has done.
She has said to each, that what the Church, any Church, needs is martyrs,
and that if they will go to benighted lands, where the crown of martyrdom
may still be won, _then_, if they return safe in five years, then
she--will think of naming a day. You will easily see the attractions of
this plan for Julia, Mr. Merton. No ideals were shattered, the young men
being unaware of the circumstances. They _might_ forget her--'

'Impossible,' cried Merton.

'They might forget her, or, perhaps they--'

Miss Crofton hesitated.

'Perhaps they might never--?' asked Merton.

'Yes,' said Miss Crofton; 'perhaps they might _not_. That would be all
to the good for the Church; no ideals would be shattered--the reverse--and
dear Julia would--'

'Cherish their pious memories,' said Merton.

'I see that you understand me,' said Miss Crofton.

Merton did understand, and he was reminded of the wicked lady, who, when
tired of her lovers, had them put into a sack, and dropped into the
Seine.

'But,' he asked, 'has this ingenious system failed to work? I should
suppose that each young man, on distant and on deadly shores, was far
from causing inconvenience.'

'The defect of the system,' said Miss Crofton, 'is that none of them has
gone, or seems in a hurry to go. The first--that was Mr. Bathe, Julia?'

Julia nodded.

'Mr. Bathe was to have gone to Turkey during the Armenian atrocities, and
to have _forced_ England to intervene by taking the Armenian side and
getting massacred. Julia was intensely interested in the Armenians. But
Mr. Bathe first said that he must lead Julia to the altar before he went;
and then the massacres fell off, and he remains at Cheltenham, and is
very tiresome. And then there is Mr. Clancy, _he_ was to go out to
China, and denounce the gods of the heathen Chinese in the public
streets. But _he_ insisted that Julia should first be his, and he is at
Leamington, and not a step has he taken to convert the Boxers.'

Merton knew the name of Clancy. Clancy had been his fag at school, and
Merton thought it extremely improbable that the Martyr's crown would ever
adorn his brow.

'Then--and this is the last o