te us worse than ever. Then the
disaffected here are in correspondence with the disaffected elsewhere.
Nottingham is one of their headquarters, Manchester another, Birmingham
a third. The subalterns receive orders from their chiefs; they are in a
good state of discipline; no blow is struck without mature deliberation.
In sultry weather you have seen the sky threaten thunder day by day, and
yet night after night the clouds have cleared, and the sun has set
quietly; but the danger was not gone--it was only delayed. The
long-threatening storm is sure to break at last. There is analogy
between the moral and physical atmosphere."

"Well, Mr. Moore" (so these conferences always ended), "take care of
yourself. If you think that I have ever done you any good, reward me by
promising to take care of yourself."

"I do; I will take close and watchful care. I wish to live, not to die.
The future opens like Eden before me; and still, when I look deep into
the shades of my paradise, I see a vision that I like better than seraph
or cherub glide across remote vistas."

"Do you? Pray, what vision?"

"I see----"

The maid came bustling in with the tea-things.

The early part of that May, as we have seen, was fine; the middle was
wet; but in the last week, at change of moon, it cleared again. A fresh
wind swept off the silver-white, deep-piled rain-clouds, bearing them,
mass on mass, to the eastern horizon, on whose verge they dwindled, and
behind whose rim they disappeared, leaving the vault behind all pure
blue space, ready for the reign of the summer sun. That sun rose broad
on Whitsuntide. The gathering of the schools was signalized by splendid
weather.

Whit-Tuesday was the great day, in preparation for which the two large
schoolrooms of Briarfield, built by the present rector, chiefly at his
own expense, were cleaned out, whitewashed, repainted, and decorated
with flowers and evergreens--some from the rectory garden, two cartloads
from Fieldhead, and a wheel-barrowful from the more stingy domain of De
Walden, the residence of Mr. Wynne. In these schoolrooms twenty tables,
each calculated to accommodate twenty guests, were laid out, surrounded
with benches, and covered with white cloths. Above them were suspended
at least some twenty cages, containing as many canaries, according to a
fancy of the district, specially cherished by Mr. Helstone's clerk, who
delighted in the piercing song of these birds, and knew that amidst
conf