upon what it was lying.  There was a steel chain fastened to it, and the chain was around the neck of a woman who lay upon the earth; the jewel was upon her breast.  But how white and cold the breast was!  Surely there was no life in it.  And he observed with horror that the garments which had fallen back were oozing with water, and that the hair was wet.  He hardly saw the face; for a moment he thought he saw it, and that it was the face of a Jewess, young and beautiful, but the vision passed from him.  The chant had ceased, and the rabbi was kissing his book.

Very solemnly the Jew bowed himself three times and kissed the book, and then in the twilight of the nine dim lamps he stumbled out and shut the door, without giving a glance to his one listener.

As for the young Christian priest, he was panic-stricken.  When our senses themselves deceive us we are cut off from our cheerful belief in the reality of material things, or forced to face the unpleasant fact that we hold no stable relationship to them.  He rushed out into the street.  Issachar was at the entrance as he passed, and he fancied he saw the face of the reader peeping at him from the vestry window, but he crushed his hat hard down on his head and strode away, courting the bluster of the wind, striving by the energy of action to cast off the trance that seemed to enslave him.

When he reached his own door he found the baker’s wife sitting on the doorstep.  It was quite dusk; perhaps that was the reason he did not recognise her at first.

’La, sir, I found them two muffins lying unbeknown in the corner of the shelf, so I brought them round, thinking you mightn’t ’ave ’ad your tea.’

‘Muffins?’ said the curate, as if he were not quite sure what muffins might be.  Then he began to wonder if he was really losing his wits, and he plunged into talk with the woman, saying anything and everything to convince himself that he was not asleep or mad.  ’Do you know, Mrs. Yeander, that I am going to be married?’

‘Well, I am sure, sir,’ said she, curtseying and smiling.  ’It’s a great compliment to me to hear it from your own lips; not that it’s unexpected.  Miss Violetta’s a sweet saint, just like her ma, she is, an’ her ma’s a saint if there ever was one.  Mr. Higgs, the verger, says that to see her pray that length of time on her knees after the service is over in church is a touching sight.’

‘But I don’t think Miss Violetta is like her mother,’ said the curate.

’Well no, sir; now that you mention it, perhaps she’s not—­at least, not in looks.  But lor’ sir, she’s wonderful like her ma when it comes to paying a bill, not but what they’re to be respected for keeping a heye on the purse.  I often tell Yeander that if we were a bit more saving, like the vicar’s lady, we’d lay by a bit for our old age.’

‘Yes, Mrs. Yeander, yes; that would be an excellent plan,’ said the curate, fumbling with his latch-key in the door.  ’Suppose you come in and make my tea for me, Mrs. Yeander.  I’m all alone to-night.’