to judge impartially, having thereon only such general opinions as all good men must have, but never having given to the subject that detailed and scrutinising attention which must of necessity bias the honest decision of Percival Vere, as to whether or no he might unselfishly and without sin seek Shanno Bryn Afon for his wife. The pain of these conscientious scruples was only intensified for a time by his chance discovery one day from certain light remarks let fall by the earl, that it had for some time past been a cherished wish of his own to see his beloved chaplain and his wife's beautiful young companion--whom he little imagined to be his own daughter--united in marriage. The very ease with which he might win his coveted prize made the possible duty of sacrificing it to a higher purpose only the more unendurable to contemplate, but the chaplain was too true a man not to face it boldly, wince as he might under the pain. At length, like a sudden flash of light across the darkness of his troubled thoughts, came the recollection of the marvellous medicinal skill and wisdom of Rhiwallon, the survivor of the far-famed brothers of Glyn Helen, and of that secret remedy for the ills caused by the curse, which he had for years been labouring to perfect, and which, in his treatment of the unhappy earl had already, as Percival knew, often proved of wondrous efficacy in mitigating his sufferings. Here was one of far superior age and wisdom to himself, skilled far beyond his own youthful knowledge in all depths of medical lore, and in particular of that one matter in which so much was involved, a man possessing the accumulated wisdom of a long line of illustrious and skilled ancestors, and devoting his life to the further development of the marvellous cure, the secret of which had been bequeathed to him in an imperfect state by his father, and by which he hoped one day to wholly conquer and subdue the dread evil which had for centuries reigned over the House of Bryn Afon, and to which his own lost love had fallen a prey in her turn. Unable longer to endure his struggle of mind alone and unaided, the young chaplain eagerly sought out the physician one evening, finding him in his laboratory, deeply engrossed in the secrets of his art, his black eyebrows fiercely knit in thought, and his piercing eyes eagerly scrutinising a liquid contained in a small phial, which he was holding up to the light, and over which he was smiling to himself a grim smile of satisfaction and pride.