though to be sure she was quite unaware that he was inadequate in
this respect. No man had meant anything different up to this
period of her life. She had seen so few of them she was no judge.

Eustace Medlicott had higher collars than the other curates, and
intoned in a wonderfully melodious voice in the cathedral. And
quite a number of the young ladies of Exminster, including the
Bishop's second daughter, had been setting their caps at him from
the moment of his arrival, so that when, by the maneuvers of Aunt
Caroline Ebley, Stella found him proposing to her, she somehow
allowed herself to murmur some sort of consent.

Then it seemed quite stimulating to have a ring and to be
congratulated upon being engaged. And the few weeks that followed
while the thing was fresh and new had passed quite pleasantly. It
was only when about a month had gone by that a gradual and growing
weariness seemed to be falling upon her.

To be the wife of an aesthetic high church curate, who fasted
severely during Lent and had rigid views upon most subjects, began
to grow into a picture which held out less and less charm for her.

But Aunt Caroline was firm--and the habit of twenty-one years of
obedience held.

Perhaps Fate was looking on in sympathy with her unrest. In any
case, it appeared like the jade's hand and not chance which made
Uncle Erasmus decide to take his holiday early in the year and to
decide to spend it abroad--not in Scotland or Wales as was his
custom.