vestry ere the waggonette had vanished in a cloud of dust up the Darriwell road. But on this occasion, though the horses were in and the servants seated in the carriage, the master was in no haste to start. He seemed to want to say "Good-morning" to Mrs. Brown, and to exchange a greeting with his old friend Jack. Jack, convoyed by the archdeacon, was surrounded by a group of leading townsmen, portly and prosperous tradesmen, pillars of the local church, who monopolised him for the present; and Mrs. Brown was engaged in introducing Mrs. Primrose to those gentlemen's wives. It seemed hopeless to attempt to get at either without swamping himself, and meanwhile the Darriwell horses, unaccustomed to delay, were fretting themselves into a temper under the hot sun. Still he hung around, until Grace Brown saw him and thought he was waiting to speak to her, upon which she smilingly tripped across the grass and tenderly offered her hand to him.

"What did you think of the sermon?" she asked, as they stood together, apart from the

rest.

Mr. Mackenzie was posed. He said he didn't know he thought it was pretty much like other

sermons.

"Not like papa's, of course," said Grace, "but

.

still very good-very good indeed. I like Mr. Primrose exceedingly.”

"He certainly has improved very much," said Colin, with an absent air.

"And what do you think of her?" demanded Miss Brown. They were both gazing at the inch or two that was visible of the bride, who looked like a child among the solid matrons who hemmed her in.

Mr. Mackenzie was prompted again to say he didn't know, but he held his tongue.

"I think she is charming," said Grace, with energy.

Encouraged by which bold opinion, her companion intimated that he also thought her rather nice looking upon the whole.

"So English!" exclaimed Grace, fervently. "Yes," he responded; "she has an English look about her."

"Such a perfect lady!"

"Yes; she is very ladylike."

"You ought to stay and be introduced to her, knowing her husband as you do. How tiresome those people are, keeping us like this! I wish they would go. Oh!"-turning round suddenly "what is the matter with your horses?"

There was a commotion in a distant part of the

church grounds. A farmer, whose spring-cart was used to stand beside the Darriwell carriage during service-time, had just harnessed up and was driving off; and the fiery pair that were accustomed to lead the way, under whose very noses he set forth with a jogging clatter over the grass, were so affronted by the circumstance that they could not contain their indignation. They first plunged wildly, then swerved violently to one side, then stood on their hind legs, and, coming down in a reckless manner, smashed the pole. A few women screamed, as if they had never witnessed such a thing before, and there was a general scamper towards the scene of the accident.

Colin quietly followed the crowd, along with. other placid persons of his own sex. There was no harm done to speak of, in their eyes. The pole was snapped short off, and the carriage rendered useless until another could be put in; but that was nothing-the most trivial of mishaps. It could be left in the town for repairs, he said, and sent for next day; the servants could get a trap from the livery stables. As for him, he would walk home. An ordinary buggy would not hold them all, and a walk would do him good.

"Not in this weather," urged Mrs. Brown, who had bustled upon the scene. "You must not think

of it. Stay to dinner with us, and the girls shall drive you back in the afternoon. Now do-it would really be no trouble to them whatever. Besides, then you can have a talk with Mr. PrimThis is Mrs. Primrose.-Mrs. PrimroseMr. Mackenzie. A neighbour of ours, my dear, and an old acquaintance of your husband's."

rose.

Mrs. Primrose looked at him, not with the ingratiating feminine ogle that he was accustomed to, but with the frank smile of a woman confident of being the equal of any man, and something more; and she held out her beautifully gloved hand.

"I hoped it was you," she said, "and I am so glad! We heard of your living here from a friend of Harry's-he wrote to us about it but we did not know if you would be at church."

"Of course he would be at church. He is the most punctual of church-goers," said Mrs. Brown.

66

Quite a model of respectability," said Colin, who thought that Harry, arguing from college habits, might have given him another character.

"An example to us all," murmured Mrs. Archdeacon, with unction. "Would that we had a few

more churchmen of his stamp!"

He looked at Mrs. Primrose out of the corner

of his eye, and she met the look with a merry sidelong smile, quickly repressed.

"I suppose churchmen are not always good at going to church," she replied to Mrs. Brown, evidently trying to be clerical, as a curate's wife should be. "But perhaps it's because, in this country, they live such a long way off."

"Distance is nothing when the 'heart is in it,"

said the oracle of Wooroona.

"Nobody thinks of

distance when there is a ball to go to."

"Are there many balls here?" Mrs. Primrose turned to Lottie, as the one from whom a sympathetic answer might be expected.

"Such as they are," responded Lottie, with aristocratic disdain. "Low things, of course. Are you fond of dancing?"

"Don't ask absurd questions," her mother interposed. "Mrs. Primrose has something better to think of than balls and dancing-haven't you, my dear? Come along to dinner.-Come, Mr. Mackenzie. Pot-luck, you know; you must take us as you find us."

So Mr. Mackenzie, when his servants and the townspeople had dispersed, sauntered into the parsonage garden with a Miss Brown on either side of him, studying the charming figure that walked in front as he went along. He was delighted to find