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utterly ignorant of the place and its inhabitants, and he was too proud to ask for information.

As soon as the morning school was over he took the note from his pocket and examined it carefully. It was written in a pretty flowing hand, on good paper, with a crest and address stamped on the top. Stephen had never received such a note in his life before, but he judged that it came from a lady. Could it be the ladies he had seen at church and in the pony carriage? That was hardly likely, he thought, it was much more probable that it came from one of the more ordinary looking people that he had not noticed.

Between morning and afternoon school Stephen had made up his mind how to act. When the afternoon lessons were over he said, in a loud voice

"I am going with you choir boys to the singing practice at Mrs Melville's this evening. Now, go home and make yourselves clean and tidy, and be back here in good time to start."

The boys stared, but some of them said, "Yes, sir," quite respectfully, and they all scampered home full of the news that the "new master from Lunnon" was going with them to the Thicket that night.

Somehow a dim idea was beginning to force its way into the brains of the Chilternites, that this same new master was a rather superior person after all. They still looked upon him as a proud, stuck-up chap, but the very fact of his showing himself so utterly indifferent to their friendship or opinion, had almost impressed them with a sense of respect.

Now, the good Mr Champneys had formed a habit of thinking for every one in his parish, and helping them to

bear their burdens, little and great; and he imagined that Stephen Rivers might feel some difficulty about his invitation to the Thicket. So, a little before six o'clock, he walked round to the schoolhouse; there he found Stephen dressed in his Sunday best, and evidently in a state of nervous excitement, though he tried hard to hide it.

"So you are going to the Thicket for the singing practice, are you?" said the Rector. "I came round to show you the way, and introduce you to the ladies."

"I am sure you are very kind, sir," said Stephen, who felt really grateful for such consideration. "But, if you please, I must wait a few minutes, for I told the boys to meet me here at six o'clock, that we might all walk up together."

"That was quite right," said the Rector, in an approving tone. He thought to himself that the master knew his work. Poor old Sherwin had never troubled himself about how the boys went to the Thicket, but had let them struggle up anyhow, but then he was never invited to go with them.

In a few minutes about a dozen boys had assembled, all with their hands and faces shining with soap and water, and, like their master, dressed in their Sunday clothes. Stephen inspected them with approval, and desired them to march two and two.

"If I let them run about, they will all be dusty and untidy before we reach the house," he said.

Again the Rector approved, and he was quite surprised to find what command the new master already had of his boys.

Though quite sensible of Mr Champneys' kindness,

Stephen felt a little disappointed at his appearance just then. He had intended to use this walk with his boys as an opportunity of making friends with them, and finding out a little more about them than he could learn in school hours. But he gained more by that walk at their head, by the side of the Rector, than he could have imagined. That short walk placed him, in the estimation of the villagers, upon a sort of social pedestal among the powers that be, and made him at once a person to be looked up to.

CHAPTER V.

INSIDE PARADISE.

THE little procession went past the end of the green, before the eyes of all the gossips there, and down the lane which led to the towing-path; along the side of the river, and over the funny old draw-bridge; then down another lane, which was new to Stephen, where they soon halted before an iron gate standing in the midst of a clipped hedge. They went up the wellswept carriage-drive to the porch of a white house, all covered with honey-suckle and passion-flowers.

The door was opened by a neat maid, who smiled pleasantly at the Rector, and the whole party entered the hall, which ran right through the house, and opened by glass doors into the garden beyond. Stephen noticed everything while the boys were vigorously rubbing their feet on the mat, and wiping the dust from their boots with their pocket-handkerchiefs - which articles of luxury they only carried on state occasions, such as the present. By the time this operation was over, Stephen had quite come to the conclusion that the garden visible through the glass doors, beyond which he saw the river shining, was the very paradise he had veiwed on his first morning at Chiltern, and, consequently, that he was about to be introduced to the Eve.

The Rector led the way into a large, pleasant room, with windows opening wide into the verandah. Stephen felt nervous. He had never been introduced into such company as this before, and he was not quite sure how he ought to behave; but he remembered what Kingsley says about Tom Thurnall, that "his very best manners were no manners at all." So Stephen thought he would try to be natural.

The eldest of the three ladies sitting in the room came forward, and the Rector said, "This is Mr Rivers. My sister, Mrs Melville."

Mrs Melville shook hands with Stephen, and said, "My daughters," pointing to two young ladies, who both bowed.

Stephen at once recognised the faces he had seen at church and in the pony-carriage. In a few minutes the boys were arranged round the piano at which Violet sat, and Edith led the singing. Mr Champneys took the bass, and Stephen the tenor; the practising lasted for more than an hour; and, when it was over, Violet turned to Stephen and said, with a winning smile

"I hope you will not mind sitting in the choir on Sundays, Mr Rivers. We shall be so glad of a tenor— it will be a great help to us."

Stephen blushed with pleasure, and said he should be glad to be of any use; and, for the first time, he looked full at that sweet face, and thought in all his life he had never seen anything so lovely.

She was dressed in simple white, with a rose in her bosom. Her shining hair, which grew low on her forehead, was coiled into a knot at the back of her wellformed head. Her cheeks were round and soft, like a

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