y mind at all when I wrote to you. My object was to caution
you, not at all as to your own conduct, but as to others who were speaking
evil of you.

"As to the action of which you spoke so strongly when I had the pleasure
of seeing you here, I am very glad that you abandoned it, for your own
sake and for mine, and the sake of all us generally to whom the peace of
the Church is dear.

"As to the nature of the language in which you have found yourself
compelled to write to me, I must remind you that it is unusual as coming
from a clergyman to a bishop. I am, however, ready to admit that the
circumstances of the case were unusual, and I can understand that you
should have felt the matter severely. Under these circumstances, I trust
that the affair may now be allowed to rest without any breach of those
kind feelings which have hitherto existed between us.--Yours very
faithfully,

"C. BROUGHTON."

"It is a beastly letter," the Doctor said to himself, when he had read it,
"a beastly letter;" and then he put it away without saying any more about
it to himself or to any one else. It had appeared to him to be a "beastly
letter," because it had exactly the effect which the Bishop had intended.
It did not eat "humble pie;" it did not give him the full satisfaction of
a complete apology; and yet it left no room for a further rejoinder. It
had declared that no censure had been intended, and expressed sorrow that
annoyance had been caused. But yet to the Doctor's thinking it was an
unmanly letter. "Not intended as an admonition!" Then why had the Bishop
written in that severely affectionate and episcopal style? He had
intended it as an admonition, and the excuse was false. So thought the
Doctor, and comprised all his criticism in the one epithet given above.
After that he put the letter away, and determined to think no more about
it.

"Will you come in and see Mrs. Peacocke after lunch?" the Doctor said to
his wife the next morning. They paid their visit together; and after
that, when the Doctor called on the lady, he was generally accompanied by
Mrs. Wortle. So much had been effected by 'Everybody's Business,' and its
abominations.

CHAPTER VI.

THE JOURNEY.

WE will now follow Mr. Peacocke for a while upon his journey. He began
his close connection with Robert Lefroy by paying the man's bill at the
inn before he left Broughton, and after that found himself called upon to
defray every trifle of expense