old fellow!" Then he took it to himself and read it all over again,
introductions and all, and has raved ever since. I wish you could
see Aubrey singing out some profane couplet of "midnight and not a
nose," or some more horrible original parody, and then dodging
apparently in the extremity of terror, just as Leonard furiously
charges him.

'But you would have been struck with their discussions over it. Last
night, at tea, they began upon the woeful result of the Wager of
Battle, which seemed to oppress them as if it had really happened.
Did I believe in it? Was I of the Lady Abbess's opinion, that


'"Perchance some form was unobserved,
Perchance in prayer or faith he swerved"?


'This from Aubrey, while Leonard rejoined that even if De Wilton had
so done, it was still injustice that he should be so cruelly ruined,
and Marmion's baseness succeed. It would be like a king wilfully
giving wrong judgment because the right side failed in some
respectful observance. He was sure such a thing could never be. Did
I ever know of a real case where Heaven did not show the right? It
was confusing and alarming, for both those boys sat staring at me as
if I could answer them; and those wonderful searching eyes of
Leonard's were fixed, as if his whole acquiescence in the dealings of
Providence were going to depend on the reply, that could but be
unsatisfactory. I could only try plunging deep. I said it was Job's
difficulty, and it was a new light to Leonard that Job was about
anything but patience. He has been reading the Book all this Sunday