nons, whose children she taught, called upon her with their
wives, and talked over the former deans and chapters, of whom she had
both a personal and traditional knowledge, and as they walked away and
talked about her silent delicate-looking friend Miss Wilkins, and perhaps
planned some little present out of their fruitful garden or bounteous
stores, which should make Miss Monro's table a little more tempting to
one apparently so frail as Ellinor, for the household was always spoken
of as belonging to Miss Monro, the active and prominent person. By-and-
by, Ellinor herself won her way to their hearts, not by words or deeds,
but by her sweet looks and meek demeanour, as they marked her regular
attendance at cathedral service: and when they heard of her constant
visits to a certain parochial school, and of her being sometimes seen
carrying a little covered basin to the cottages of the poor, they began
to try and tempt her, with more urgent words, to accompany Miss Monro in
her frequent tea-drinkings at their houses. The old dean, that courteous
gentleman and good Christian, had early become great friends with
Ellinor. He would watch at the windows of his great vaulted library till
he saw her emerge from the garden into the Close, and then open the
deanery door, and join her, she softly adjusting the measure of her pace
to his. The time of his departure from East Chester became a great blank
in her life, although she would never accept, or allow Miss Monro to
accept, his repeated invitations to go and pay him a visit at his country-
place. Indeed, having once tasted comparative peace again in East
Chester Cathedral Close, it seemed as though she was afraid of ever
venturing out of those calm precincts. All Mr. Ness's invitations to
visit him at his parsonage at Hamley were declined, although he was
welcomed at Miss Monro's, on the occasion of his annual visit, by every
means in their power. He slept at one of the canon's vacant houses, and
lived with his two friends, who made a yearly festivity, to the best of
their means, in his honour, inviting such of the cathedral clergy as were
in residence: or, if they failed, condescending to the town clergy. Their
friends knew well that no presents were so acceptable as those sent while
Mr. Ness was with them; and from the dean, who would send them a hamper
of choice fruit and flowers from Oxton Park, down to the curate, who
worked in the same schools as Ellinor, and who was a