‘Why? What is your reason for saying so?’ ‘I read it in your eye; it is not of that description which promises the maintenance of an even tenor in life.’ ‘I am not ambitious.’ He started at the word ‘ambitious.’ He repeated, ‘No. What…

‘And what is he?’ ‘He is a parson.’ I remembered the answer of the old housekeeper at the parsonage, when I had asked to see the clergyman. ‘This, then, was his father’s residence?’ ‘Aye; old Mr. Rivers lived here, and his father, and grandfather,…