XXXII. CRIPPS ON CELIBACY 214 XXXIII. KIT 223 XXXIV. A WOOLHOPIAN 230 XXXV. NIGHTINGALES 237 XXXVI. MAY MORN 242 XXXVII. MAY-DAY 248 XXXVIII. THE DIGNITY OF THE FAMILY 259 XXXIX. A TOMBSTONE 267 XL. LET ME OUT 276 XLI. REASON AND UNREASON 284 XLII. MEETING THE COACH 291 XLIII. THE MOTIVE 300 XLIV. THE MANNER 307 XLV. THE POSITION 313 XLVI. IN THE MESHES 324 XLVII. COMBINED WISDOM 335 XLVIII. MASCULINE ERROR 342 XLIX. PROMETHEUS VINCTUS 351 L. FEMININE ERROR 361 LI. UNFILIAL 367 LII. UNPATERNAL 375 LIII. "THIS WILL DO" 386 LIV. CRIPPS BRINGS HOME THE CROWN 391 LV. SMITH TO THE RESCUE 402 LVI. FATAL ACCIDENT TO THE CARRIER 410 CRIPPS, THE CARRIER. CHAPTER I. THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY. The little village of Beckley lies, or rather lay many years ago, in the quiet embrace of old Stow Wood, well known to every Oxford man who loves the horn or fusil. This wood or forest (now broken up into many straggling copses) spread in the olden time across the main breadth of the highland to the north of Headington, between the valley of the Cherwell and the bogs of Otmoor. Beckley itself, though once approached by the Roman road from Alchester, must for many a century have nursed its rural quietude, withdrawn as it was from the stage-waggon track from High Wycombe to Chipping Norton, through Wheatley, Islip, and Bletchingdon, and lying in a tangle of narrow lanes leading only to one another. So Beckley took that cheerful view of life which enabled the fox to disdain the blandishments of the vintage, and prided itself on its happy seclusion and untutored honesty. But as all sons of Adam must have something or other to say to the rest, and especially to his daughters, this little village carried on some commerce with the outer world; and did it through a carrier.