The Reverend Septimus stared, then suddenly sank to his knees and
returned thanks in his simple fashion.

"Don't let us be too certain, Anthony," he exclaimed at length. "There
may be a mistake, or perhaps this is only a respite which will prolong
the suspense. Often such things happen to torment us; I mean that they
are God's way of trying and purifying our poor sinful hearts."



CHAPTER II

THE NEW YEAR FEAST

Barbara did not die. On the contrary, Barbara got quite well again, but
her recovery was so slow that Anthony only saw her once before he was
obliged to return to college. This was on New Year's Day, when Mr.
Walrond asked him to dinner to meet Barbara, who was coming down for the
first time. Needless to say he went, taking with him a large bunch
of violets which he had grown in a frame at the Hall especially for
Barbara. Indeed, she had already received many of those violets through
the agency of her numerous younger sisters.

The Rectory dinner was at one o'clock, and the feast could not be
called sumptuous. It consisted of a piece of beef, that known as the
"aitch-bone," which is perhaps the cheapest that the butcher supplies
when the amount of eating is taken into consideration; one roast duck,
a large Pekin, the Near Year offering of the farmer Stevens; and a plum
pudding somewhat pallid in appearance. These dainties with late apples