all in vain.
The plan was accepted for the town-hall, and the specifications were
ordered to be made out for competition, and a rate decided on. The
church was to wait for subscription and bazaar; the drains, for
reason in Wil'sbro', or for the hope of the mayoralty of Mr.
Whitlock, a very intelligent and superior linendraper.

CHAPTER XI
Rosamond's Apologue

Pray, sir, do you laugh at me?--Title of Old Caricature

Was Cecil's allegiance to Dunstone, or was it to the heiress of
Dunstone? Tests of allegiance consist in very small matters, and it
is not always easy to see the turning-point. Now Cecil had always
stood on a pinnacle at Dunstone, and she had found neither its
claims nor her own recognized at Compton. One kind of allegiance
would have remained on the level, and retained the same standard,
whether accepted or not. Another would climb on any pinnacle that
any one would erect for the purpose, and become alienated from
whatever interfered with such eminence.

So as nobody seemed so willing to own Cecil's claims to county
supremacy as Lady Tyrrell, her bias was all towards Sirenwood; and
whereas such practices as prevailed at Dunstone evidently were
viewed as obsolete and narrow by these new friends, Cecil was
willing to prove herself superior to them, and was far more
irritated than convinced when her husband appealed to her former
habits.

The separation of the welfare of body and soul had never occurred to
the beneficence of Dunstone, and it cost Cecil a qualm to accept it;
but she could not be a goody in the eyes of Sirenwood; and besides,
she was reading some contemporary literature, which made it plain
that any religious instruction was a most unjustifiable interference
with the great law, "Am I my brother's keeper?" and so, when she met
Anne with a handful of texts neatly written out in printing letters,
she administered her warning.

Cecil and Anne had become allies to a certain extent, chiefly
through their joint disapproval of Rosamond, not to say of Julius;
and the order was so amazing that Anne did not at first take it in;
and when she understood that all mention of religion was forbidden,
she said, "I do not think I ought to yield in this."

"Surely," said Cecil, "there is no connection between piety and
cutting out."

"I don't know," said Anne; "but it does not seem to me to be right
to go on with a work where my Master's Name is forbidden."

"Religion ought never to be obt