nded their little flight. It was then that
the historian produced his manuscript, which he had prepared, he said,
with a view to publication. His delivery of the story having concluded
as aforesaid, the speaker expressed his hope that the constraint of the
weather, and the paucity of more scientific papers, would excuse any
inappropriateness in his subject.

Several members observed that a storm-bound club could not presume to be
selective, and they were all very much obliged to him for such a curious
chapter from the domestic histories of the county.

The President looked gloomily from the window at the descending rain, and
broke a short silence by saying that though the Club had met, there
seemed little probability of its being able to visit the objects of
interest set down among the _agenda_.

The Treasurer observed that they had at least a roof over their heads;
and they had also a second day before them.

A sentimental member, leaning back in his chair, declared that he was in
no hurry to go out, and that nothing would please him so much as another
county story, with or without manuscript.

The Colonel added that the subject should be a lady, like the former, to
which a gentleman known as the Spark said 'Hear, hear!'

Though these had spoken in jest, a rural dean who was present observed
blandly that there was no lack of materials. Many, indeed, were the
legends and traditions of gentle and noble dames, renowned in times past
in that part of England, whose actions and passions were now, but for
men's memories, buried under the brief inscription on a tomb or an entry
of dates in a dry pedigree.

Another member, an old surgeon, a somewhat grim though sociable
personage, was quite of the speaker's opinion, and felt quite sure that
the memory of the reverend gentleman must abound with such curious tales
of fair dames, of their loves and hates, their joys and their
misfortunes, their beauty and their fate.

The parson, a trifle confused, retorted that their friend the surgeon,
the son of a surgeon, seemed to him, as a man who had seen much and heard
more during the long course of his own and his father's practice, the
member of all others most likely to be acquainted with such lore.

The bookworm, the Colonel, the historian, the Vice-president, the
churchwarden, the two curates, the gentleman-tradesman, the sentimental
member, the crimson maltster, the quiet gentleman, the man of family, the
Spark, and seve