ing
she started from the house according to her custom at a little after
ten. Mary Lowther went with her, and as the school was in the village
and could be reached much more shortly by the front gate than by the
path round by the church, the two ladies walked out boldly before the
new chapel. The reader may perhaps remember that Mrs. Fenwick had
promised her husband to withdraw that outward animosity to the chapel
which she had evinced by not using the vicarage entrance. As they
went there was a crowd collected, and they found that after the
manner of the Primitive Methodists in their more enthusiastic days,
a procession of worshippers had been formed in the village, which at
this very moment was making its way to the chapel. Mrs. Fenwick, as
she stood aside to make way for them, declared that the bell sounded
as though it were within her bonnet. When they reached the school
they found that many a child was absent who should have been there,
and Mrs. Fenwick knew that the truant urchins were amusing themselves
at the new building. And with those who were not truant the clang of
the new bell distracted terribly that attention which was due to the
collect. Mrs. Fenwick herself confessed afterwards that she hardly
knew what she was teaching.

Mr. Fenwick, according to his habit, went into his own study when the
ladies went to the school, and there, according to custom also on
Sunday mornings, his letters were brought to him, some few minutes
before he started on his walk through the garden to the church. On
this morning there were a couple of letters for himself, and he
opened them both. One was from a tradesman in Salisbury, and the
other was from his wife's brother-in-law, Mr. Quickenham. Before he
started he read Mr. Quickenham's letter, and then did his best to
forget it and put it out of his mind till the morning service should
be over. The letter was as follows:--

Pump Court, June 30, 1868.

DEAR FENWICK,

I have found, as I thought I should, that Lord Trowbridge
has no property in, or right whatever to, the bit of
ground on which your enemies have been building their new
Ebenezer. The spot is a part of the glebe, and as such
seems to have been first abandoned by a certain parson
named Brandon, who was your predecessor's predecessor.
There can, however, be no doubt that the ground is glebe,
and that you are bound to protect it as such, on behalf of
your successors, and of th