look after the three churches and was last seen in an intoxicated condition on the quay of Boulogne harbor. The present incumbent, who was anxious that the dowager should not object to a step up he proposed to take next Easter by introducing colored vestments at Little Cherrington and linen vestments at Great Cherrington for those very early services that fierce Squire Kingdon would never get up to attend, perhaps alluded to the history of his predecessor in order to emphasize his own superiority. It was all very discreetly done, even to selecting the moment when the two girls were examining a shepherd's sick dog and therefore out of hearing. "How different from the late lord," Mr. Beadon sighed. "Mrs. Beadon"--the rector paid tribute to his outraged celibacy by never referring to her as his wife--"Mrs. Beadon often wonders why I don't write a special memoir of him." The dowager gazed affectionately at the chlorotic window by Burne-Jones. "Perhaps his life was too quiet," she said. "I think the window is enough." "_Claro non clango._ But when Mr. Kingdon dies," said the rector, tartly, "I understand that Mrs. Kingdon will erect an organ to _his_ memory." They passed out of the church and stood looking down into the lap of the fair landscape outspread before them, talking of other ancestors: of Richard, the second earl, who married the daughter of a marquis and saw Clarehaven disfranchised in 1832, by which time the borough was so rotten that there was nothing perceptible of it except a few seaweed-covered stones at low tide; it was he who destroyed a couple of good farms to provide himself with a park worthy of his rank, which he inclosed with a stone wall and planted trees, the confines of which his descendants now tried proudly to trace in the wintry haze. Lest any want of patriotism should be imputed to the second earl, Mr. Beadon reminded his listeners of how Geoffrey, the third earl, did his duty to his country, first as a member of Parliament for one of the divisions of Devonshire, when he showed the Whigs that the disfranchisement of his borough was not enough to keep a Clare out of Parliament, and afterward as Lord Lieutenant of the county; his duty to his sovereign by acting as Vice-Chamberlain to her Majesty's household. Of his son Gilbert, the fourth earl, enough has been said; though it may be added here that he sold Hopley Hall and many acres besides. "On the whole, though, I think he was right," said Mr. Beadon. "These Radicals, you know." "Come and have lunch with us," the dowager invited. It would be the last independent hospitality she could offer at Clare Court. II