Brothers

h his stammer as Christian did with Apollyon, and he told Archie that he had reason to believe it was maste

, before they admitted me t

at an unfamiliar Mark. "

mtit trying to escape. Ross rescued me. You must get to know Ro

e and affection as of yore, out he was conscious also of a mental change in his brother, divined rather than apprehended.

like to see results. I keep a diary-of results. You were telling me just now of the difficulties of dealing with

ount your shea

" Archie admitte

felt it in me to become a preac

s had plenty

tand in the pulpit of such

t?" sai

But those spires and pinnacle

be your tex

vert from the tempest.' I shall not t-touch upon the prophetical interpretation. I

ught his

in you,

ut suppose it

hat Betty Kirt

ed to hide his

re to-morrow. I accepted for you. Betty ran down from

O

rson. I see her name continually in the papers. Lady Randolph tells

thrust out a lean leg. "Is

why your work should cut you off from old friends who have your welfare at hear

rtainly sti

g hope of becoming a great preacher. He had consumed gallons of midnight oil in the composition of sermons declaimed in unfrequented spots of Victoria Park. Now, the thought of preaching to the woman he loved filled him with bitter-sweet excitement. He dressed and went out into the park. Presently he came t

o the critical mind left something to be desired; but his manner was admirable and his voice clear, persuasive, melodious, an instrument of incomparable power and delicacy. Did Mark envy his

s Charteris to hear him preach? Why? His heart flamed; for Archie had preached his firs

ly selfish or so selfless in its aims as to be abnormal. Mark admitted the possibility of breakdown. And if silence were imposed, he must shoulder the burden. Speech, on the other hand, if it were truly his, included sp

e always assumed an attitude of profound attention, his fine head inclined upon his massive chest, his eyes and lips meditatively closed. If suspicious sounds had not escaped through his nose, none would have dared to accuse him of napping. But everybody, from the rector to the latest breeched urchin, knew that the dear man slept like a humming-top from introduction to peroration. He would not sleep to-day. Expectation, tempered by anxiety, informed his expression, the expression assumed by him at Lord's, when his sons were walking to the wicket. Literall

eetly thrusting his hand into a burrow, had been nailed by a ferret. Behind Wadge was Bulpett, the butcher, a burly man, one of the churchwardens, and reputed to be worth a snug ten thousand pounds. What a lot of rats there used to be in his old slaughter-house before it was pulled down!

cottage near Cranberry brook, wherein Archie and he used to catch trout by the willow at the foot of her cabbage patch. She had been maid to the first Mrs. Samphire; and when Miss Selina Lamb came to Pitt Hall, Ellen married a porter, who had waited for her fifte

oughts wer

first came to King's Charteris. And in the village the influence of this saint remained a vital force, although he had been dead nearly twenty years. This thought moved Mark to pray that he might be given the gift of tongues, which is not the faculty of speaking many languages, but the infinite

casional cough were silenced. Mark began his sermon by asking his hearers to consider man's relation to others: a theme informed by him with phrases and illustrations drawn from personal observation of village life. Betty Kirtling felt as if she were peering into a magic mirror, where

But each boy-so Betty noted-was gazing at Mark with intelligence and affection. He held them in thrall. The hard lines about Mrs. Sa

d something to say which the world would hear gladly, his infirmity seized him. In the middle of a phrase he began to stutter. His face grew convulsed, his thin hand went

s in a glance which she could not interpret, as the girl who had laughed was led weeping from the church. The great oak door clanged behind her, and in the silence which followed Mark attempted to continue his sermon, but the last despera

age street, and strolled up the lane which led to Westchester Downs. In the street a small crowd had collected, including Wadge and Bulpett. Further down, by the lychgate, st

ark. "The dear old man was

ed sympathy and affection. Bulpett advanced, holding out his huge hand. "Gawd b

mering. He glanced at the circle of kindly fa

flaming with primroses, and sloping to the old c

again?" said A

"All the same, I have the feeling

ery pale, but calm. Archibald seemed quite overcom

ha

which appalled me. I had touched you-all of you-to so

his eyes upon a

d girl!" groa

eemed to exasperat

"Why shouldn't one want the good things

don't I hunger for 'em? But if t

lace I should be furious, be

Mark, taking his brother

ie that Mrs. Corrance had a

a baby," said Ar

use, welcoming Mark with a mute sympathy more eloquent

s of it," he said

in the garden, and the one which brought most vividly to mind his childhood. Here, many and many a time, Mrs. Corrance had read to and played with Jim and the Samphire boys. He could just remember how dreary and neglected this garden had been when the arbour was built. Out of a chaos of weeds and stones and broken crockery (for the outgoing tenant had used this backyard as

his tongue wagging, but his thoughts were in the pulpit of King's Charteris Church or in Mrs. Corrance's rose-gard

dreaded this moment; so had she; and yet each was sensible of a harmony

our plans?"

e Camford Mission. She listened, computing the d

-such work, too,-wer

shed, brimming over with a tender and i

he answered slowly, watching the pulse

ou began I-I almost forgot that it was you. And when I looke

felt, that, that--" He put his hand to his throat, unable to finish the

t that beca

ng again her de

y. "I ought not to have cried. I behaved like a weak f

s throat seeme

se, do you think that I would care? Do you measur

ized he

bless you, dear, dear Betty!" Then abruptly,

voice. She stood alone, a piteous figure, truly fem

as she had done in the church. "I can