ve felt unwilling to
commit himself to endorsing them by the formal grant of a new
licence. May I hear from you at your convenience, and may I
respectfully add that your lordship has the prayers of all my
people?

I am your lordship's obedient servant,

John Rowley.

To which the Lord Bishop of Silchester replied as follows:

High Thorpe Castle.

March 26.

Dear Mr. Rowley,

As my predecessor Bishop Crawshay did not think a new licence would
be necessary I have no doubt that you can go ahead with your plan
of opening the new St. Agnes' on Easter Sunday. At the same time I
cannot help feeling that a new licence would be desirable and I am
asking Canon Whymper as Rural Dean to pay a visit and make the
necessary report. I have heard much of your work, and I pray that
it may be as blessed in my time as it was in the time of my
predecessor. I am grateful to your people for their prayers and I
am, my dear Mr. Rowley,

Yours very truly,

Harvard Silton.

Canon Whymper, the Rector of Chatsea and Rural Dean, visited the new
church on the Monday of Passion week. On Saturday Father Rowley received
the following letter from the Bishop:

High Thorpe Castle.

April 9.

Dear Mr. Rowley,

I have just received Canon Whymper's report upon the new church of
the Silchester College Mission, and I think before you open the
church on Easter Sunday I should like to talk over one or two
comparatively unimportant details with you personally. Moreover, it
would give me pleasure to make your acquaintance and hear something
of your method of work at St. Agnes'. Perhaps you will come to High
Thorpe on Monday. There is a train which arrives at High Thorpe at
2.36. So I shall expect you at the Castle at 2.42.

Yours very truly,

Harvard Silton.

Mark paid his second visit to High Thorpe Castle on one of those serene
April mornings that sail like swans across the lake of time. The
episcopal standard on the highest turret hung limp; the castle quivered
in the sunlight; the lawns wearing their richest green seemed as far
from being walked upon as the blue sky above them. Whether it was that
Mark was nervous about the result of the coming interview or whether it
was that his first visit to High Thorpe had been the climax of so many
new experiences, he was certainly muc