"You are not, my lord--unless you think I haven't seen this for myself!" The bishop nodded gravely to himself. "You would see the danger. I am sure of that. You must want to hear the last of what you have done; superhuman and heroic in itself--I am the first to admit it--it is nevertheless the last chapter of a book which you must want to close once and for all. The last chapter recalls the first. Close the book; put it behind you; start afresh." Robert Carlton stood looking down with a curious smile upon his haggard face. "That is exactly what I am going to do," said he. "But the parish must do the same; they must help you. Let them also think no more of the past, either remote or immediate." "They must think of what they will," rejoined Carlton, queerly. "They cannot help me much longer, nor I them. I am resigning the living, my lord." "Resigning it?" cried the bishop. "I intend to do so to-morrow night. It always has been my intention. But you are the first whom I have told." "I'm glad to hear that!" the bishop exclaimed, as he scrambled to his feet another being. "You have taken my breath away! My dear fellow, let me dissuade you from any such course." Carlton shook his head. "My work here is done." "It is just beginning!" "No, it is done. I have given my parishioners the church I owed them, since they lost their last church through me. I set them once an example for which I shall pray to be forgiven till my life's end; but now, please God, I have at least shown them that because a man falls it need not be utterly and for ever. He can rise; or, at any rate, he can try. God knows I have tried; and they know it; and it may help them in their own day of bitter trouble. But it was you, my lord, who first helped me, by bidding me never despair. I have tried to teach your lesson; that is all." "But you have not finished," the bishop urged, gently. "Go on teaching it--go on." "No. It is no sudden thought. I undertook in the beginning, when Sir Wilton Gleed wanted to turn me out forcibly, to go of my own accord when I had built the church. He may forget it, but I do not." "Then I devoutly hope he will not accept your resignation!" "He must. I have made my arrangements. There is need of clergy in the far corners of our empire, greater need than here. There was an Australian at the hotel I have been staying at in London, and he has shown me my field. I am going out to offer my services to the Bishop of Riverina, and I am relying upon a word from you for their acceptance. I hope to sail at the beginning of next month; my passage is already taken." "I suppose you took it when you were in town?" the bishop grumbled. Carlton coloured in an instant.