that rise up against me; thou hast deli

ALM xviii. 4

e reflection that in all probability the most numerous of all are the unborn. The Creator may at any moment get tired of the eternal monotonous repetition o

nd tall chimneys and colliery stacks. On the south you must go seven miles before you will find a truly green field, and most of us are quite old before we can make such a pilgrimage, and then clear air and trees and streams and sky and the song of birds are things as separate from our lives as our dreams. They are almost a show to us. Our great holiday

the centre of the town and wind through the streets, the little

what he had seen, that there was nothing uncanonical in the conduct of the services at St. Paul's. He liked Francis, and if he could not altogether approve of the means, the result was eminently satisfactory.

s the other papers took the matter up, and Francis found a sort of greatness thrust upon him. He refused to see reporters, and told one persistent Scotsman that it was Flynn's affair, not his, and that he had no int

assize, and she had no doubt that that would be the first step. Francis had no such illusions. He was not ambitious for promotion. He took out Sermon No. 112

osted by a gloomy-faced individual with a sandy complexion, who called him a "spawn of Rome," and when Francis smiled at the grotesqueness of the expressi

hool in Bide Street. The railings were torn down and the furniture of the doors wrenched away. Roughs and hooligans joined in, and one Sunday all the doors of the church were found to be screwed up, and the congregation stood in the street,

f Ages, cl

ide myself i

of inciting to violence. The prosecution failed, but Flynn had the satisfaction

d by their descriptions of Rio de Janeiro. His real reason was a heartfelt desire to get away from Frederic, but of that he said nothing. He observed, with much justice, that he was not doing any good at school and would [Pg 43]probably learn no more if he stayed there another two years. (The school was conducted

f her real relation with her children, and lived in a fantasy in which she was the perfect

t my children do that

type, believed her, and together they glowed

ing way of accepting the facts of his existence for better, for worse. He knew that he was unhappy at home,

other, "how can you think of

lse am

lyat in a bank!-a clerk! And

title which Minna missed sharing

Bell is in a ban

you leave your mother?

eave their mother

love your

Leedham sturdily,

without your fa

g

N

well,

med to end t

er first and came st

go to the

other is very m

not th

is ag

hat am I going t

be a clergy

nt to be a

ctor,

ou aff

ways and means, and Francis delighted in his boy's practical good sense and independence,

am. "And please, will you as

xpect her no

t. But I want her

"I'm glad and I'm pr

deric came to him

t, and thoroughly disliked the idea of losing him, did his best to make him feel a callous brute. But Leedham was excited and exalted at the prospect o

s father, and they had long friendly talks all about nothing, in which

g

day with a cold caught in crawling along the roof in his night-gown from his attic-window to the attic of the boy next door. He had been thrashed for doing it-but when the boy next doo

in ten years and buy a carriage for his mother and re-build his father's chur

e you marry

" said

ncis, with a chuckle, "h

rotested Martha. "The P

ll be rich,"

-Bell. And in a few minutes they had created the future Mrs. Lee

good part and made himself esp

James and the talk turned on Flynn, and

t Flynn," s

he's filled the church. I coul

rid," said Mab

am getting what I want. Both his people and my people

g

ssie Clibran-Bell, "that

" returne

ou proceed

e clergy should squabble

, "it would be a c

had called through the window to the boy next door, but there was such a terrific

ed from one to the other. Leedham left the room and they he

h over his cage because he was beginning to scream. Came a ring at the door, and presently Leedham appeared with

om

olyat

door was open and the gas was flickering in the wind, so that it was v

found him on the pavement below. He was quite cold, an

irs and laid his poor broken body on the bed in Mary's room, and Francis fumbled out and along the street to beg the doctor to come at once. There was no

sent pathetic little wreaths of ivy and hideous wax monstrosities and horrible crosses of iron filagree. The beauty and charm of the boy were discovered after he was dead, and for a little while the ho

nerves made her for a long time a valetudinarian. She was j

ly whispered among his followers that in St. Paul'

e report that he was instituting the confessional. Flynn did not stop to examine the accuracy or probability of the rumour but hurled thunderbolts. A gang of roughs set on Frederic one day, and he cam

to be suffering as the consequence of my actio

is was known as

ey Clay, and this, when bruited, fell like a spark upon the dry minds of the most ignorant members of the faction. On [Pg 48]a dark evening in Nove

ification of birth, marriage, and death. Humanity seemed so primitive-just a base struggle for existence and satisfaction in existence, and silly devastating squabbles about forms. He realised dreadfully what a gulf lay between himself and his wife, and he strove desperately to bridge it, only to discover that she was unconscious of any disparity and had a diabolical skill in coating any uncomfortable fact with a romantic fiction so that it became as a pearl upon her shell. He blamed himself for it, and was kind to her and fought against the exasperation which her prattle aroused in him. Having no friend

e more into the house in Fern Square, but it seemed to Francis so remote-as remote as the woman upstairs, who complained and compl