The statement was almost a question. Ella Carruthers, faintly amused, treated it as such. "Oh, no," she said. "He talked to me about him. He felt a great sympathy with him. I think he realised what his wishes were likely to be about Denis, though of course he didn't say anything about it to me." The sisters did not ask themselves how, in that case, she could have divined the thoughts of her august relative. Both of them brightened visibly. "I don't like to hope too much," said Rhoda who, as the elder, always spoke first. "But it _would_ be such a good thing for the parish." "Everybody loves Denis," said Ethel. "There is nobody, I don't care who he is, who could influence them more. And we should be here to help him, as we always helped our dear father. They know our ways. Of course, one mustn't put it on personal grounds, but it _would_ seem a pity for all our work here to be lost." "We should work wherever we went," said Rhoda. "It is not ourselves we are thinking of. Neither of us would care to settle down to a selfish life without trying to influence our fellow-creatures for good. But I do feel that if we were not permitted to stay on and work here, a great deal that we have done during the last twenty years and more might be lost. People so soon relapse." Ella Carruthers could hardly keep the smile from her lips. The idea of the parish relapsing into heathendom on the departure of the Misses Cooper amused her, though, in her softer mood towards them, she only found it rather pathetic that they should disclaim personal interest in the decision that was soon to be made. She knew little about the conditions of Church patronage, and still less as to what her uncle's ideas on the subject were. But she thought she might 'put in a word' when he came to the funeral, as he had, most gratifyingly, announced his intention of doing; she had reason to believe, generally, that her word had weight with him. She left them with heightened hopes, which, if hardly justified by any influence in her power to exercise, at least put the seal upon the reconciliation between her and them. "She really is kind at heart," said Rhoda, as they went back into the dining-room, after saying good-bye to her. "I shan't be sorry to be friends with her again." "Nobody can say we have kow-towed," said Ethel. "It was the principle we stood up for, and although we frankly admitted the mistake we made we have never given way an inch upon that." CHAPTER II A QUESTION OF PATRONAGE Ella Carruthers lunched at Abington Abbey on that day. The whole family were there except Young George, who was at school,--George Grafton, Caroline, Beatrix, Barbara, and Miss Waterhouse. The old Rector of Surley had been ill almost ever since the Graftons had come to live at the Abbey, and they had hardly known him. So the talk, as far as it concerned his death, was almost entirely devoted to the question of his successor.