for her previous banter, more especially as neither had he any
confidence to reveal or conceal, only the tidings that the riders,
whose coalition had justified Lady Temple's prudence, had met Mr.
Touchett wandering in the lanes in the twilight, apparently without a
clear idea of what he was doing there. And on the next evening there
was quite an excitement, the curate looked so ill, and had broken
quite down when he was practising with the choir boys before church;
he had, indeed, gone safely through the services, but at school he
had been entirely at a loss as to what Sunday it was, and had still
more unfortunately forgotten that to be extra civil to Miss Villars
was the only hope of retaining her services, for he had walked by her
with less attention than if she had been the meanest scholar. Nay,
when his most faithful curatolatress had offered to submit to him a
design for an illumination for Christmas, he had escaped from her
with a desperate and mysterious answer that he had nothing to do with
illumination, he hoped it would be as sombre as possible.

No wonder Avonmouth was astonished, and that guesses were not
confined to Mackarel Lane.

"Well, Colin," said Ermine, on the Tuesday, "I have had a first-hand
confidence, though from a different quarter. Poor Mr. Touchett came
to announce his going away."

"Going!"

"Yes. In the very nick of time, it seems, Alick Keith has had a
letter from his uncle's curate, asking him to see if he could meet
with a southern clergyman to exchange duties for the winter with a
London incumbent who has a delicate wife, and of course. Mr. Touchett