which he deemed golden were in
reality made of baser metal. He never, as I have said, complained of his
father to me, and his only other friends were, like himself, staid and
prim, of evangelical tendencies, and deeply imbued with a sense of the
sinfulness of any act of insubordination to parents--good young men, in
fact--and one cannot blow off steam to a good young man.

When Christina was informed by her lover of his father's opposition, and
of the time which must probably elapse before they could be married, she
offered--with how much sincerity I know not--to set him free from his
engagement; but Theobald declined to be released--"not at least," as he
said, "at present." Christina and Mrs Allaby knew they could manage him,
and on this not very satisfactory footing the engagement was continued.

His engagement and his refusal to be released at once raised Theobald in
his own good opinion. Dull as he was, he had no small share of quiet
self-approbation. He admired himself for his University distinction, for
the purity of his life (I said of him once that if he had only a better
temper he would be as innocent as a new-laid egg) and for his
unimpeachable integrity in money matters. He did not despair of
advancement in the Church when he had once got a living, and of course it
was within the bounds of possibility that he might one day become a
Bishop, and Christina said she felt convinced that this would ultimately
be the case.

As was natural for the daughter and intended wife of a clergyman,
Christina's thoughts ran much upon religion, and she was resolved that
even though an exalted position in this world were denied to her and
Theobald, their virtues should be fully appreciated in the next. Her
religious opinions coincided absolutely with Theobald's own, and many a
conversation did she have with him about the glory of God, and the
completeness with which they would devote themselves to it, as soon as
Theobald had got his living and they were married. So certain was she of
the great results which would then ensue that she wondered at times at
the blindness shown by Providence towards its own truest interests in not
killing off the rectors who stood between Theobald and his living a
little faster.

In those days people believed with a simple downrightness which I do not
observe among educated men and women now. It had never so much as
crossed Theobald's mind to doubt the literal accuracy of any syllable in