by any peculiar observance beyond the eating of mince-pies and cheese-cakes.  It seemed to him that all seasons were alike good for thanking God, departing from evil and doing well, whereas it might be desirable to restrict the period for indulging in unwholesome forms of pastry.  Mr. Jerome’s dissent being of this simple, non-polemical kind, it is easy to understand that the report he heard of Mr. Tryan as a good man and a powerful preacher, who was stirring the hearts of the people, had been enough to attract him to the Paddiford Church, and that having felt himself more edified there than he had of late been under Mr. Stickney’s discourses at Salem, he had driven thither repeatedly in the Sunday afternoons, and had sought an opportunity of making Mr. Tryan’s acquaintance.  The evening lecture was a subject of warm interest with him, and the opposition Mr. Tryan met with gave that interest a strong tinge of partisanship; for there was a store of irascibility in Mr. Jerome’s nature which must find a vent somewhere, and in so kindly and upright a man could only find it in indignation against those whom he held to be enemies of truth and goodness.  Mr. Tryan had not hitherto been to the White House, but yesterday, meeting Mr. Jerome in the street, he had at once accepted the invitation to tea, saying there was something he wished to talk about.  He appeared worn and fatigued now, and after shaking hands with Mrs. Jerome, threw himself into a chair and looked out on the pretty garden with an air of relief.

’What a nice place you have here, Mr. Jerome!  I’ve not seen anything so quiet and pretty since I came to Milby.  On Paddiford Common, where I live, you know, the bushes are all sprinkled with soot, and there’s never any quiet except in the dead of night.’

’Dear heart! dear heart!  That’s very bad—­and for you, too, as hev to study.  Wouldn’t it be better for you to be somewhere more out i’ the country like?’

’O no!  I should lose so much time in going to and fro, and besides I like to be among the people.  I’ve no face to go and preach resignation to those poor things in their smoky air and comfortless homes, when I come straight from every luxury myself.  There are many things quite lawful for other men, which a clergyman must forego if he would do any good in a manufacturing population like this.’

Here the preparations for tea were crowned by the simultaneous appearance of Lizzie and the crumpet.  It is a pretty surprise, when one visits an elderly couple, to see a little figure enter in a white frock with a blond head as smooth as satin, round blue eyes, and a cheek like an apple blossom.  A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other; and Mr. Tryan looked at Lizzie with that quiet pleasure which is always genuine.

‘Here we are, here we are!’ said proud grandpapa.  ’You didn’t think we’d got such a little gell as this, did you, Mr. Tryan?  Why, it seems but th’ other day since her mother was just such another.  This is our little Lizzie, this is.  Come an’ shake hands wi’ Mr. Tryan, Lizzie; come.’