The Altar Steps

athletic education and Mr. Spaull's milksop morality, three years of wearing clothes that were too small for him, three years of Haverton House cooking, three years of warts and

ld contribute. Mark was so anxious to be finished with Haverton House that he would have welcomed a prospect even less attractive than Mr. Hitchcock's office in Finsbury Square; it never occurred to him that the money left by his mother could be spent to greater advantage for himself. By now it was over ￡500, and Uncle Henry on Sunday evenings when he was feeling comfortably replete with the day's devotion would sometimes allude to his having left th

ry asked, and one seemed to hear his words snapping

after anything," Ma

rd to Mr. Hitchcock's off

nce of Mr. Palmer who always had supper with his headmaster and

if the headmaster wanted Mark to go

nks," s

y raised h

at is for m

He was angry without knowing his reasons, angry in response to some impulse of the existence of which he had been unaware

you should never be confi

died wanted me to be confirmed, but it couldn't be arranged, and now I don't intend to be confirmed till I feel I want to be confirmed. I don't want to be prepared for co

me Eno's Fruit Salts to-morrow morning." In her nephew's pr

anything to-morrow morn

o thrash you?" Un

tered with the zeal of

k. "You can of course, if you get Mr. Palmer

ing in a bush. But the headmaster's vanity would not allow him to summon help to pun

sort of thing," said Mr. Palmer. "He always resen

worm!" Ma

elen gasped. "You mustn't

m and go to bed," U

so conspicuous on this Sunday evening out of so many Sunday evenings. What did it matter whether he were conf

he satisfaction of bowling Mr. Palmer in the first innings of a match

a pool. He flung himself down in the frondage, and the spice of it in his nostrils was as if he were feeding upon summer. He was happy until he caught sight of his own reflection in the pool, and then he could not bear to stay any longer in this wood, because unlike the squirrel and the woodpecker and the jay he was an ugly intruder here, a scarecrow in ill-fitting clothes, round the ribbon of whose hat like a chain ran the yellow zigzag of Haverton House. He became afraid of the wood, perceiving nothing round him now except an assemblage of menacing trunks, a slow gathering of angry and forbidding branches. The silence of the day was dreadful in this wood, and Mark fled from it until he emerged upon a brimming clover-ley full of drunken bees, a merry clover-ley dancing in the sun, across which the sound of church bells was being blown upon a honeyed wind. Mark welcomed the prospect of s

on but also his partaking. All the services he had attended since he came to Slowbridge had demanded nothing from him, and even wh

th you: for the prince of this wo

iest, a tall fair man, with a gentle voice and of a mild and benignant aspect, went up into the pulpit and announced that there would be a confirmation in his church on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mark felt in this newly found assurance of being commanded by God to follow Him that somehow he must be confirmed in this church and prepared by this kindly priest. The se

iarity of its repetition, but this morning it took him back to that night in Church Cove whe

at they may see your good works, and g

riest," Mark v

hey may both by their life and doctrines set forth thy true and

I will,"

unto all that truly turn to him. Come unto me all tha

words he might when he was

s at this time from heaven with a sudden great sound, as it had been a mighty wind, in the like

the priest glowed wi

antly to preach the Gospel unto all nations; whereby we have been brought out of darknes

refore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee, and saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, L

t of two thatched cottages that had evidently been made into one house. While he was standing there looking over the trim quickset hedge, an old lady with silvery hair came slowly down the road, paused a moment by the gate

"do not run away, young gentleman. I see that you admire

roast beef, and Mark discovered that he was hungry, so hungry indeed that he felt he could not stay any longer to be tantalized by the odours of the Sunday dinner, but must go off and find an inn where he could obtain bread and cheese as quickly as possible. He was preparing an excuse to get away, when the garden wicket clicked, and looking up he saw the fair priest coming down the path towar

r stick she forbade him to move, and before he had time to mumb

who resembled her brother. "And this is my daughter Est

d have liked to ask what he

nd have lunch with us,

nvited. On the other hand he did not know how to refuse. It would be absurd to say that he had to get home, because they would ask him where he liv

going to stay,"

icar in his study, which was small and intimate with its two armchairs and bookshelves reaching to the ceiling all round. He had not yet managed to find out his name, and as it was obviously too late t

ly, "Lidderdale. I wonder if you were a relat

s father spoken of as famous, and when he explained who he was he flushed

pe to be a pri

do rather,

car, his kindly blue eye beaming

ing to him as though he

nt. You must come over and lunch with us again next Sunday. My mother will be delighted to see you. She's a dear old thing, isn't she? I'm going to hand you over to her now and my youngest sister. My other sister and I have got Sunday schools to deal with. Have another cigarette? No. Quite right. You ou

young, and he could think of no better way to do it than by asking him his name,

ng? Now, look here, I must run. I expect you'll be wanting to get home, or I'd suggest your staying until I get back, but I must lie low after tea and think out my sermon. Look

. Ogilvie with an assured politeness that was typical of his new found ease; and when he started on his long walk back to Slowbridge he

emence of his uncle's opposition, and it must be added that he thoroughly enjoyed it. The experience of that Whit-sunday had been too rich not to be of enduring importance to his development in any case; but the behaviour of Uncle Henry made it more important, because all this criticism h

vie knew

o do with the case,

ink i

most unpleasant note in your voice, an objectiona

an that I'm not to go

himself the trouble of writing to me, your guardian, before

e would wr

st. A Romanizer of the worst type. He'll only fill your head with a lot of effeminate nonsense, and that at a time when it's particularly

confirmation," said Mark, who was determin

eserve to b

ived that she was just a ball of badly wound wool lying in a chair. "Look here, Uncle Henry, it's quite useless for you to try to stop my going to Meade Can

Lidderdale, scornful both of t

with me or doing anything except letting me go

r upon an impulse to protect her

owder," he said. "Nor with Senna nor

Mr. Lidderdale. "A young Mohawk would not tal

t to have spoken to you like that. And I'm sorry, Uncle Henry, to seem ungrateful after what you've done for me." And then lest his uncle should think th