CPAPTER

CORMORAN.

II.

again; but outside another high service is which his cheerful sympathy was better beginning, and the lights of the great north- medicine after all than any mere morbid ern altar are burning faintly in their turn. investigations into their depths could have People say that extremes meet; and in proved. the same way that fancy worlds and dreams do not seem meant for the dreary stone streets and smoky highways of life, neither do they belong to summer and holiday time, when reality is so vivid, so sweet, and so near, that it is but a waste to dream of fairies dancing in rings, or peeping from the woo is, when the singing and shining is in all the air, and the living sunshiny children are running on the lawn, and pulling at the flowers with their determined little fingers. And there are butterflies and cuckoos and flowing streams and the sounds of flocks and the viorations of summer everywhere. Little Anne comes trotting up with a rosehead tight crushed in her hand; little Margery has got a fern-leaf stuck into her hat; Puck, Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustard-seed, themselves, are all invisible in this great day-shine. The gracious faney kingdom vanishes at cock-crow, we know. It is not among realities so wonderful and beautiful that we can scarce realize them that we must look for it. Its greatest triumphs are where no other light shines to brighten by weary sick beds; when distance and loneliness oppress. Who cannot remember days and hours when a foolish conceit has come now and again, like a "flower growing on the edge of a precipice," to distract the dizzy thoughts from the dark depths below?

THE first time I ever heard of the Rev. John Trevethic was at Sandsea one morning, when my maid brought in two cards, upon which were inscribed the respective names of Miss Moineaux and Miss Triquett. I had taken a small furnished house at the seaside (for H. was ailing in those days, and had been ordered salt air by the doctors); we knew nobody and nothing of the people of the place, so that I was at first a little bewildered by the visit; but I gathered from a few indescribable indications that the small fluttering lady who came in sideways was Miss Moineaux, and the bony, curly, scanty personage with the big hooknose who accompanied her Miss Triquett. They both sat down very politely, as people do who are utter 'strangers to you and about to ask you for money. Miss Moineaux fixed a little pair of clear meek imploring eyes upon me. Miss Triquett took in the apartment with a quick uncomfortable swoop or ball-like glance. Then she closed her eyes for an instant as she cleared her throat.

She need not have been at any great pains in her investigations; the story told itself. Two middle-aged women, with their Certainly it was through no fancy world desks and work-baskets open before them, that poor John Trevithic's path led him and The Times and some Indian letters wandering in life, but amid realities so stern just come in, on the table, the lodging-house and so pitiful at times that even his courage mats, screens, Windsor chairs, and druggets, failed him now and then. He was no cele- a fire burning for H.'s benefit, an open brated hero, though I have ventured to window for mine, the pleasant morning christen him after the great type of our wash and rush of the sea against the terrace childhood; he was an honest, outspoken upon which the windows opened, and the young fellow, with a stubborn temper and a voices of H's grandchildren plaving outtender heart, impressionable to outer things, side. I can see all the cheerful glitter now as although from within it was not often that I write. I loved the little place that strikes anything seemed to affect his even moods me so quaintly and kindly as I think of it. and cheerful temper. He was a bright- The sun shone all the time we were there; faced, broad-set young fellow, about six-day by day I saw health and strength comand-twenty, with thick light hair, and eagleish eyes, and lips and white teeth like a girl. His hands were like himself, broad and strong, with wide competent fingers, that could fight and hold fast, if need be; and yet they were so clever and gentle withal, that children felt safe in his grasp and did not think of crying, and people in trouble would clutch at them when he put them out. Perhaps Jack did not always understand the extent of the griefs for

ing into my H's pale face. The house was comfortable, the walks were pleasant, good news came to us of those we loved. In short, I was happy there, and one cannot always give a reason for being happy. In the meantime. Miss Triquett had made her observations with her wandering ball eyes.

"We called," she said, in a melancholy clerical voice, "thinking that you ladies might possibly be glad to avail yourselves of an opportunity for subscribing to a testi

her arms, stopped to smile, and to put out written quires, ridden miles, talked himself a slender hand, letting the satin stuff fall hoarse, about this neglected sewer in St. into the dust. Young Lord and Lady Michael's Buildings. The town council, Wargrave were hurrying away with their finding that the whole of High Street would various guests, but they turned and came have to be taken up, and what a very seback to say a friendly word to this popular rious undertaking it was likely to be, were young curate; and Colonel Hambledon, anxious to compromise matters, and they Lord Wargrave's brother, gave him a might have succeeded in doing so if it had friendly nod, and said, "I shall look in one not been for the young man's determination. day before you go." I happened to know Old Mr. Bellingham, who had survived the names of all these people, because I some seventy cholera seasons, was not likely had sat in Mrs. Myles's pew at church, and to be very active in the matter. Everybody I had seen the Wargraves in London. was away, as it happened, at that time except Major Coote, who was easily talked over by anybody; Jobsen, the mayor, had got hold of him, and Trevithic had to fight the battle alone One person sympathized with him from the beginning, and talked to her father, and insisted, very persistently, that he should see the necessity of the measure. This was Anne Bellingham, who, with her soft pink eyes fixed on Trevithic's face, listened to every word he said with interest- an interest which quite touched and gratified the young man, breathless and weary of persuading fishmongers, of trying to influence the sleek obstinate

The subscribers to the teapot were invited to visit it at Mr. Philips's, in Cockspur Street, to whom the design had been entrusted. It was a very handsome teapot, as ugly as other teapots of the florid order, and the chief peculiarity was that a snake grasped by a clenched hand formed the handle, and a figure with bandages on its head was sitting on the melon on the lid. This was intended to represent an invalid recovering from illness. Upon one side was the following inscription:

TO

THE REV. JOHN TREVITHIC, M. A., butcher, and the careworn baker with his

FROM HIS PARISHIONERS AT SANDSEA,

ten dusty children, and the stolid oil and colourman, who happened to be the mayor

IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF HIS EXER- that year. It seemed, indeed, a hopeless

AND HIS

TIONS DURING THE CHOLERA

SEASON OF 18-,

SUCCESSFUL

case to persuade these worthy people to increase the rates, to dig up the High Street under their very windows, to poison themAND ENTERPRISING selves and their families, and drive away custom just as the season was beginning. John confessed humbly that he had been wrong, that he should have pre-sed the matter more urgently upon them in the spring, but he had been ill and away, if they remembered, and others had promised to see to it. It would be all over in a week, before their regular customers arrived.

EFFORTS FOR THE IMPROVED DRAINAGE
OF HIGH STREET AND THE NEIGH-
BOURING ALLEYS, ESPECIALLY

THOSE

KNOWN AS ST. MICHAEL'S BUILDINGS." Upon the other,

TO THE REV. JOHN TREVITHIC, M.A.

Both these inscriptions were composed by Major Coote, of Coote Court, a J. P. for the county. Several other magistrates had subscribed, and the presentation paper was signed by most of the ladies of the town. recognized the bold autograph of Louisa Triquett, and the lady-like quill of Sarah Moineaux, among the rest. H. figured as "Anon." down at the bottom.

Jack had honestly earned his teapot, the pride of his mother's old heart. He had worked hard during that unfortunate outbreak of cholera, and when the summer came round again, the young man had

Jack's eloquence succeeded in the end. How it came about I can scarcely tell he himself scarcely knew. He had raised the funds, written to Lord Wargrave, and brought Colonel Hambledon himself down from town; between them they arranged with the contractors, and it was all settled almost without anybody's leave or au horitv. One morning, Trevithic hearing a distant rumbling of wheels. jumped up from his breakfast and ran to his window. A file of carts and workmen were passing the end of the street, men with pickaxes and shovels; carts laden with strange-looking pipes and iron bars. Mr. Moffat, the indignant butcher, found a pit of ten feet deep at his shop-door that evening; and Sutt, the baker, in a fury, had to send his wife and

children to her mother, to be out of the way of the mess. In a week, however, the whole thing was done, the pit was covered over, the foul stream they dreaded was buried down deep in the earth, and then in a little while the tide of opinion began to turn. When all the coast was in a terror and confusion, when cholera had broken out in one place and in another, and the lodging-houses were empty, the shopkeepers loud in complaints, at Sandsea, thanks to the well-timed exertions, as people call draining, not a single case was reported, and though the season was not a good one for ordinary times, compared to other neighbouring places, Sandsea was triumphant. Smutt was apologetic, Moffat was radiant, and so was Anne Bellingham in her quiet wav. As for Miss Triquett, that devoted adherent, she nearly jumped for joy, hearing that the mayor of the adjoining watering-place was ill of the prevailing epidemic and not expected to live.

upon her the last time she heard him; or Miss Triquett expressed her views on the management of the poor-kitchen, and read out portions of her correspondence, such as:

"My dearest Maria, I have delayed answering your very kind letter until the return of the warmer weather. Deeply as I sympathize with your well-meant efforts for the welfare of your poorer neighbours, I am sorry that I cannot subscribe to the fund you are raising for the benefit of your curate."

"My aunt is blunt, very blunt," said Miss Triquett, explaining away any little awkwardness, "but she is very good, Mr. Trevithic, and you have sometimes said that we must not expect too much from our relations; I try to remember that."

It was impossible to be seriously angry. Jack looked at her oddly as she stood there by the pump in the market-place where she had caught him. How familiar the whole scene was to him; the village street, the gable of the rectory on the hill up above, Miss Triquett's immovable glare; vision of her used to rise before him long after and make him almost laugh, looking back from a different place and world, with strange eyes that had seen so many things that did not exist for him in those dear tiresome old days.

a stern

Jack and Miss Triquett were on their way to the soup-kitchen, where the district meeting was held once a month. Seeing Colonel Hambledon across the street, Trevithic escaped for a minute to speak to him, while Triquett went on. The ladies came

And then the winter went by, and this time of excitement passed over and the spring-time came, and John began to look about and ask questions about other men's doings and ways of life. It did not come upon him all in one day that he wanted a change, but little by little he realized that something was amiss. He himself could hardly tell what it was when Colonel Hambledon asked him one day. For one thing I think his own popularity oppressed him. He was too good-humoured and good-natured not to respond to the advances which met him from one side and another, but there were but few of the people, except Miss Bellingham, with whom he felt any very real sympathy, beyond that of gratitude and good-fellow-dropping in one by one. It was a low ship. Colonel Hambledon was his friend, but he was almost constantly away, and the Wargraves too only came down from time to time. Jack would have liked to see more of Mrs. Myles, the pretty widow, but she was the only person in the place who seemed to avoid him. Colonel Coote was a silly good-natured old man ; Miss Triquett and Miss Moineaux were scarcely companions. Talking to these ladies, who agreed with every word he said, was something like looking at his own face reflected in a

room with a bow window on the street, and
through an open door came a smell of roast-
mutton from the kitchen, where a fire was
burning; and a glimpse of a poultry-yard
beyond the kitchen itself. There were
little mottos hung up all about in antique
spelling, such as "Caste thy bredde upon
ye watteres," the fancy and design of Mrs.
Vickers, the present manager.
She was
very languid, and high-church, and opposed
to Miss Triquett and her friend Miss Hutch-
etts, who had reigned there before Mrs.
Vickers' accession. This housekeeping was
a serious business. It was a labour of love,
and of jealousy too: each district lady took
the appointment in turn, while the others
looked on and ratified her measures. There
was a sort of house of commons composed
of Miss Simmonds, who enjoyed a certain
consideration because she was so very fat;
good old Mrs. Fox, with her white hair;