The Cecil Whig., 1886-06-05

reformed that colony of briCkmakers
on the edge of the town SO that they
have ceased to be the terror Of their
ncighbors, and come to church in such
crowds that the more respectable part
of the congregation complain they are
crowded out by them. Why should
not the young and enthusiastic go to
hear him."
Priscilla sighed.
Priscilla took DR.. Sunbury's advice,
and on week days and Sunday after
moons forsook the comfortable cush-
loned pews Of St. Johns for St. Phillips
bare and somewhat cheerless interior.
Mr.. Ihorburn, and his hearers too,
would probably have been surprised to
know that DR.. Sunbury had called him
eloquent. He had been sol!ier many
more years than he had been a clergy
man and as a trim military mustache
and quick military walk and some
thing suggestive Of sword in the way
he carried his clerical cane still clung
to him, SO did / certain authoritative
manner of speaking-a plain, soldier
like bluntness Of speech, far removed
from conventional pulpit eloquence.
"Now, BRETHREN" he would say, very
much in the tone of "Attention !"
The tea tables of West Iarrowby did
not see Mr.. ThOrburn often. Once
month he dined with DR.. Sunbury, and
occasionally DIR. Sunbury walked over
to his brother clergyman's modest lodg
ings in East Hauowby and smoked
pipe of peace with him. Everybody
knew Mr.. Thorburn's history. He had
met with the most awful Of domestic
calamities-thc wife whom he loved
had lost her mind. Clearly society
could give Mr.. Thorbmn TO pie; ire.
Priscilla's face had not escaped Mr..
Thor5urn. He had keen eyes, and he
saw everything. He saw Priscilla with
wonder. Women, as a rule, did not
flock to his church. They said they
found his sermons cold. Men, and
some of them none of the best, chiefly
made up his audiences. 1t was not
hard anywhere to observe Priscilia's
snow drop face in her little black bon
net, with her eager, beseeching eyes.
After while Mr. Thorburn began to
feel their mesmeric influence, as DR..
Sunbury had done ever since she was
fifteen. He began to watch for her, to
preach at her, to feel that she under
stood hlm-a very comfortable thing
for public speaker. OF course he
knew who Miss Priscilla Mildmay was
Very nice, but not the equal of the
elder Misses ALildmay," he usually
heard-and sometimes they had met at
Or. Sunbury's. As Mr.. Thorburn was
naturally a silent man, and Priscilla
lacked courage in drawing room, they
scarcely exchanged half dozen words.
1t came about, though, as these things
will, that in the course of his parish
work he came upon Priscila-Priscilla
teaching a class Of ragged boys their
lessons, after having taught the most
stylish young ladies in West Harrowby
the most elegant branches of a polite
education. Some way, all the restraint
they had felt in DIR. Sunbury's drawing
room melted away in the little bare
school-room. There Priscilla reigned
supreme, calmly confident under Mr..
Thorburn's searching gaze. She had a
peculiar knack of teaching Her
gentle, "Now, please, boys" had the
same effect as Mr.. Thorburn's stern,
"See, you fellows, behave yourselves"
MIR. Thorburn watched with admiration
the tact with which she managed her
somewhat unruly crowd.
Of course all this teaching did not go
on with the unqualified appreciation of
the Misses NTildmay. Priscilla showed
phenomenal determination about it,
and being upheld by DR.. Sunbury, who
in some way always encouraged her
vagaries, the Misses Mldmay, although
they might look coldly on it, could not
forbid it.
1t did not take much to violently ex-
cite West Harrowby; and therefore
when the Harrowby JNion-PaHadium
published one morning, with big dis
play head that covered half the first
page of the paper, the burning of the
Northern Lunatic Asylum, certain
circumstance connected Herewith gave
West Iarrowby something to talk
about for week. FIVE inmates of the
female ward were missing. When the
roll was called among them, Mrs. Flea
nor Thorburn and five bodies charred
beyond recognition were found in the
ruins of the building. Some days after
that notice appeared in the obituary
column of the JnI0u-PaHadium :
"Suddenly, on the 18th Of February,
Mrs. Eleanor Thorburn, wife of the
Reverend Edmund Thorburn, of East
Harrowby." That was all.
Nobody-not the most censorious-
could accuse Mr.. Thorburn of not pay
ing sCrupulous respect to his wife
memory. Yet it made but little out
ward difference in his life. For two or
three Sundays he was absent from his
pulpit, and when he reappeared he
wore band of Grape upon his hat.
So things went on until nearly two
years had slipped past. One spring
afternoon DIR. Sunbury, with his par
ticular chum and crony DR.. Forman,
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