s wife ought not to be if she would stand in a respectable position with county society tier quite un christian name too � was absurd and almost her dress was always exquisitely though not extravagant � and people said � such people as there were in to say that they wondered how she could do i she was a daily joy and bewilderment to her husband during the first year of their marriage then there arrived a baby boy � like yet unlike her with a wise angel face and a noble head like that of the infant where he came from neither of his parents could imagine the reverend richard stared for hours at his offspring wondering why it looked so at him for he himself was quite a plain ordinary sort of man � his two best features being his eyes and mouth � eyes which were deeply set and darkly blue and lips that were finely sensitive and accustomed to gentle lines of speech and smile the beauty of his baby son confused and oppressed him he was troubled by it though he knew not why his wife was not so much perplexed as delighted with her child � she looked like a little girl suddenly presented by a kind friend with a model doll after the birth of this wondrous boy the family in considered itself complete everything smiled upon the happy the house was lovely � the garden delicious the air good and the surrounding landscape perfect at the time this true tale opens the and his wife had enjoyed their condition of bliss for three years and their beautiful son was two old � just at what is called the interesting age and it was at this very juncture that a kind of mysterious change came over the spirit of the the tragedy of a quiet life s dream � so for at least as the himself was concerned in the joy of securing living and the greater bliss of winning the love of � felicity crowned and completed by the arrival of the boy with the fine head and countenance � the reverend richard had forgotten altogether one trifling � namely that he was a clever man that is to say a man gifted above the ordinary with a wide knowledge of books a keen grasp of things social and political and a natural bias towards the graces of art and learning amid the smiles of his wife and the of his infant he had so himself that he had completely lost sight of the fact that perhaps there might be wider and more useful fields of labour than when this thought first came to him he put it away as though it were a suggestion from the evil one some deadly sin � yet every now and then it persistently to him and forced itself upon his pained attention he was ashamed of it and angry with himself for giving way to what he called a weakness � but nevertheless the question rang in his ears with haunting � are you going to spend all your life in all his life he was only thirty five � and probably � taking all the chances for and against there were several years before bim long years too � for in the time on with a most extraordinary yet who could wish for a more peaceful way of passing the days than the work of souls there was no prettier old village church in england than the one in which it was his duty to and as for his personal there was no better house anywhere than his � no wife � no more beautiful child what more then could he desire how was it that a sudden � small yet perfectly perceptible � had crept into his sky he asked himself the question many times � angrily and with a keen self reproach but he kept his own counsel as to his inward condition of mind � and not even to that dazzling creature of sunshine and his adored whose bewildering fairy beauty and gaiety of heart were a perpetual holy orders amazement to his mind did he confide what he gravely decided was a matter between and god on this day of dull rain and sweeping mist when even the garden looked dreary the spring not having yet made up its mind as to whether or no it meant finally to a long and winter and when in both its and parts presented its worst and most forlorn aspect there was something more than usually ing in the atmosphere and the reverend richard felt it he sat in his study at a round oak table strewn with letters and papers holding a pen in his hand and trying to fix mind on his next sunday s sermon opposite to him the spacious window gave him an open view of his garden � a dream of beauty in june and july � but just now fitting itself into his particular frame of mind as somewhat like a well kept from which the and memorial monuments had been recently removed tall dark and waved their like solemnly to and fro in the driving rain � the were and marked by the muddy trail of the worm � the flower borders showed some meekly little of green of waiting to grow tall if the sun would only shine upon them � and a few withered drooped towards the gravel path and shivered in the of the wind s deep set thoughtful eyes ed all these trifles with a kind of morbid even for march � he said to himself gently as though for the remark � the weather is trying he turned his pen about finger and but wrote not a word with it a terrible conviction was forcing itself upon his mind that there was nothing to write about it was a dreadful 