The girl rose from her kneeling attitude and put her arms gently
round his shoulders.

"There, Dad!" she said soothingly,--"Don't worry! Church and
church things seem to rub you up all the wrong way! Don't think
about them! Supper will be ready in a little while and after
supper we'll have a long talk. And then you'll tell me what the
doctor said."

His angry excitement subsided suddenly and his head sank on his
breast.

"Ay! After supper. Then--then I'll tell you what the doctor said."

His speech faltered. He turned and looked out on the garden, full
of luxuriant blossom, the colours of which were gradually merging
into indistinguishable masses under the darkening grey of the
dusk.

She moved softly about the room, setting things straight, and
lighting two candles in a pair of tall brass candlesticks which
stood one on either side of a carved oak press. The room thus
illumined showed itself to be a roughly-timbered apartment in the
style of the earliest Tudor times, and all the furniture in it was
of the same period. The thick gate-legged table--the curious
chairs, picturesque, but uncomfortable--the two old dower chests--
the quaint three-legged stools and upright settles, were a
collection that would have been precious to the art dealer and
curio hunter, as would the massive eight-day clock with its