nearer, up between the pillars of the nave, on a level with their
capitals. Few of the congregation noticed her, for the sermon was a
stirring one; only one or two children, perhaps, were interested--and
the man I write of. He saw her pass over his head and float up into
the chancel. He half-rose from his chair.

"My brothers," said the preacher, "if two sparrows, that are sold for
a farthing, are not too little for the care of this infinite
Providence--"

A scream rang out and drowned the sentence. It was followed by a
torrent of vile words, shouted by a man who had seen, now for the
second time, the form that clothed his wife's soul shrivelled in
unthinking flames. All that was left of the white moth lay on the
altar-cloth, among the fruit at the base of the tallest candlestick.

And because the man saw nothing but cruelty in the Providence of
which the preacher spoke, he screamed and cursed, till they
overpowered him and took him forth by the door. He was wholly mad
from that hour.



THE COUNTESS OF BELLARMINE.

Few rivers in England are without their "Lovers' Leap"; but the
tradition of this one is singular, I believe. It overhangs a dark
pool, midway down a west country valley--a sheer escarpment of
granite, its lip lying but a stone's throw from the high-road, that
here finds its descent broken by a stiff knoll, over which it rises