'And the fourth?'

'_He_ is not in holy orders.'

'Am I to understand that all the three admirers about whom Miss Baddeley
suffers remorse are clerics?'

'Yes. Julia has a wonderful attraction for the Church,' said Miss
Crofton, 'and that is what causes her difficulties. She _can't_ write to
_them_, or communicate to _them_ in personal interviews (as you advised),
that her heart is no longer--'

'Theirs,' said Merton. 'But why are the clergy more privileged than the
laity? I have heard of such things being broken to laymen. Indeed it
has occurred to many of us, and we yet live.'

'I have urged the same facts on Julia myself,' said Miss Crofton. 'Indeed
I _know_, by personal experience, that what you say of the laity is true.
They do not break their hearts when disappointed. But Julia replies that
for her to act as you and I would advise might be to shatter the young
clergymen's ideals.'

'To shatter the ideals of three young men in holy orders!' said Merton.

'Yes, for Julia _is_ their ideal--Julia and Duty,' said Miss Crofton, as
if she were naming a firm. 'She lives only,' here Julia twisted the hand
of Miss Crofton, 'she lives only to do good. Her fortune, entirely under
her own control, enables her to do a great deal of good.'

Merton began to understand that the charms of Julia were not entirely