Staple. Had Mr.
Wilkinson come up from his grave at the end of three months, he would
hardly have found that he was missed. A very elegant little tablet
had been placed to his memory; and there apparently was an end of
him. The widow's cap did make some change in the appearance of the
family circle; but it is astonishing how soon we get used even to a
widow's cap!

There had of course been visits of condolence between West Putford
and Hurst Staple, and the Hurst Staple girls and Adela had been as
much, or perhaps more, together than usual. But Arthur's walks along
the river had not been frequent. This, however, was not thought of
by any one. He had had new duties to assume, and old duties to put
off. He had been a fortnight up at Oxford; and when at home, had
been calling on all his parishioners. He had been attending to the
dilapidations of the vicarage, and rearranging the books in the
book-room. The dingy volumes of thirty years since had been made to
give way to the new and brighter bindings which he had brought from
college.

And therefore no one had remarked that he had but once been at West
Putford. But he thought of it himself. He often longed to go thither,
and as often feared to do so. When he next went, it must be to tell
Adela, not that he loved her, but that such love was forbidden to
him.

The family at West Putford consisted only of the vicar and his
daughter. Mrs. Gauntlet had been long dead, and there had been no
other child. A maiden sister of Mr. Gauntlet's occasionally visited
them, and had, indeed, lived there altogether while Adela's education
had required it; but this lady preferred her own lodgings at
Littlebath, and Adela, therefore, was in general the sole mistress of
the parsonage.

I beg my reader not to imagine that there had been love-passages
between Arthur Wilkinson and Adela Gauntlet: nothing of the sort had
occurred. They had known and loved each other as children together,
and now that they were no longer children, they still knew and loved
each other--that was all. It is true that Arthur, when he had wished
to talk of his own disappointments, had found a better listener at
West Putford than any that he could find at Hurst Staple. It is true
that Adela had always been glad to listen to him; that she had had
pleasure in cheering his fainting heart, and telling him that the
work of a soldier of Christ was worthier of a man than the bickerings
of a statesman or the quibbles of a la