ss windows, the sunlight fell in a
subdued golden stream upon the glowing hair, the gracefully bent head of
the woman who sat alone in the deep square pew. She, too, seemed to be
praying. Macheson got up and softly, but abruptly, stole from the
church.

Up into the hills, as far away, as high up as possible! A day of sabbath
calm, this! Macheson, with the fire in his veins and a sharp pain in his
side, climbed as a man possessed. He, too, was fleeing from the unknown.
He was many miles away when down in the valley at Thorpe some one spoke
of him.

"By the bye," Gilbert Deyes remarked, looking across the luncheon table
at his hostess, "when does this athletic young missioner of yours begin
his work of regeneration?"

Wilhelmina raised her eyebrows.

"To-morrow evening, I believe," she answered. "He is going to speak at
the cross-roads. I fancy that his audience will consist chiefly of the
children, and Mrs. Adnith's chickens."

"Can't understand," Austin remarked, "why a chap who can play cricket
like that--he did lay on to 'em, too--can be such a crank!"

"He is very young," Wilhelmina remarked composedly, "and I fancy that he
must be a little mad. I hope that Thorpe will teach him a lesson. He
needs it."

"You do not anticipate then," Deyes remarked, "that his labours here
will be crowned with success?"

"He won't get a soul to hear him," Stephen Hurd replied confidently.
"The villagers all know what Miss Thorpe-Hatton thinks of his coming
here. It will be quite sufficient."

Wilhelmina lit a cigarette and rose to her feet.

"Let us hope so," she remarked drily. "Please remember, all of you, that
this is the Palace of Ease! Do exactly what you like, all of you, till
five o'clock. I shall be ready for bridge then."

Lady Peggy rose briskly.

"No doubt about what I shall do," she remarked. "I'm going to bed."

Deyes smiled.

"I," he said, "shall spend the afternoon in the rose garden. I
need--development."

Wilhelmina looked at him questioningly.

"Please don't be inexplicable," she begged. "It is too hot."

"Roses and sentiment," he declared, "are supposed to go together. I want
to grow into accord with my surroundings."

Wilhelmina was silent for a moment.

"If you have found sentiment here," she said carelessly, "you must have
dug deep."

"On the contrary," he answered, "I have scarcely scratched the surface!"

Stephen Hurd looked uneasily from Deyes to his hostess. Never altogether
comfor