"From Mrs. Macdonald I gather that my first visitor is Mr. Curzon's only child. He is a widower, it seems, and Kitty is the cause of his holding a country living. By my landlady's account he is simply wrapped up in her. I have been the round of the village to-day, making acquaintance with one and another as occasion offered. As I conjectured there seems plenty to be done; and it must be some months before I can stir hand or foot, before I can get things even into my own hands--not that the people here realize this in the very least. Indeed they are intellectually dead; they seem to possess no ambition of any sort. "I went into the parish church on my way home. It is an interesting one, built about the end of the thirteenth century, with a magnificent tower that one can see for miles round. I found a great many monuments to the Lessings--a very virtuous lot, if their memorial tablets are to be trusted. The church has been carefully restored--quite recently, I fancy, by the look of it. Then I went into the churchyard, where a newly-filled-in grave showed me where my poor godfather had been laid. The sacristan, a very old, infirm man was putting it tidy; and to my astonishment I saw a low vase of white flowers placed in the very centre of the grave. "'I suppose I am not mistaken,' I said. 'This must be Major Lessing's grave?' "'Yes, sir.' "'And who put the flowers?' "'Miss Kitty, the little maid at the rectory. She said she'd thought he'd be lonely without any;' and the sacristan straightened his back with a little smile. "'I hope you don't mind,' said a voice behind me. 'I've a notion your relative did not like flowers at a funeral, but I could not upset Kitty's conviction that he did.' "It was the rector who had come upon me unawares, and he did not pretend not to know me. "'What can it matter now?' I answered. 'He'll know nothing of it.' "But I must stop, I've no time to describe the good man. Come and see him for yourself. "Ever yours, "PAUL LESSING." CHAPTER IV. OPPOSING VIEWS.