He did not say what he promised her, as he went thoughtfully home, leaving his father and Doctor Vinnicombe to do all the talking; but as they parted at the doctor's door in the High Street, the latter turned sharply, and said-- "Good-night, Luke Ross. I say, Michael Ross, I don't think you need envy the parson his good fortune in the matter of boys." "I don't envy him, Luke, my boy," said the little thin, dry old man, as soon as they were out of hearing; "and if I were you, my boy, I'd have precious little to do with these young fellows." "Don't be alarmed, father," said Luke, laughing; "they would think it an act of condescension to associate with me." "No," he said to himself, as he stood at last in his clean, plainly-furnished bedroom in the quaint little market-place, "I should be insulting Sage if I thought she could care for any one but me." But all the same Luke Ross's dreams were not of a very pleasant kind that night; and those of the two sisters of a less happy character still. PART ONE, CHAPTER FIFTEEN. THE PRODIGAL SONS. To look at the red-brick gabled rectory, with its rose and wistaria-covered trellis-work, the latter at its season one mass of lovely pendent lavender racemes, and the former in some form or other brightening the house with blossoms all the year round, it might have been thought that it was the home of peace and constant content. The surrounding gardens were a model of beauty, the Rector sparing no expense to make them perfect in their way; but he had long enough before found that beauty of garden and choicest interior surroundings would not bring him peace. His first great trouble had been the illness of his wife, who, after the birth of Cynthia, had for years and years been taken to this famous specialist, to that celebrated physician, and from both to springs all over the Continent, till, finding no relief, Mr Mallow had yielded to the suffering woman's prayer. "It is hopeless, dear," she had said, with a calm look of resignation in her pensive eyes. "Let us go home, and I will pray for strength to bear my lot." They returned then, and it was for her sake that the garden was made to bloom with flowers, and the hothouses to produce the most delicious fruits. Their income was large from private resources, while the Lawford living was good, so that all that money could bring to alleviate the suffering woman's trouble was there, and the Rector was almost constantly at her side. But Fate, as has been said, who had endowed the Rev Eli Mallow with wealth, a handsome presence, and with good intellect, had not been chary in the matter of what commercial people term set-offs. Trouble besides his wife's sickness came upon him thickly, principally in the persons of his handsome, manly-looking sons.