walk leads to our front-door; but our back
rooms, which are the pleasantest, look on to the
Close, and the cathedral, and the lime-tree walk,
and the deanery, and the rookery."

It was a mere slip of a house; the kitchen
being wisely placed close to the front door, and
so reserving the pretty view for the little dining-room,
out of which a glass-door opened into a small
walled-in garden, which had again an entrance
into the Close. Up-stairs, a bedroom to the
front, which Miss Monro had taken for herself,
because, as she said, she had old associations
with the back of every house in the High-street,
while Ellinor mounted to the pleasant chamber
above the tiny drawing-room, both of which
looked on to the vast and solemn cathedral, and
the peaceful dignified Close. East Chester
Cathedral is Norman, with a low massive tower,
a grand majestic nave, and a choir full of stately
historic tombs. The whole city is so quiet and
decorous a place, that the perpetual daily chants
and hymns of praise seemed to sound far and
wide over the roofs of the houses. Ellinor soon
became a regular attendant at all the morning
and evening services. The sense of worship
calmed and soothed her aching weary heart, and
to be punctual to the cathedral hours she roused
and exerted herself, when probably nothing else
would have been sufficient to this end.

By-and-by Miss Monro formed many
acquaintances; she picked up, or was picked
up by, old friends, and the descendants of old
friends. The grave and kindly canons, whose
children she taught, called upon her with their
wives, and talked over the former deans and
chapters, of whom she had had both a personal
and traditional knowledge, and as they walked
away they talked about her silent, delicate-looking
friend Miss Wilkins, and perhaps planned
some little present out of their fruitful garden
or bounteous stores which should make Miss
Monro's table a little more tempting to one
apparently so frail as Ellinor, for the household
was always spoken of as belonging to Miss
Monro, the active and prominent person.
By-and-by, she, herself, won her way to their hearts,
not by words or deeds, but by her sweet looks,
and meek demeanour, as they marked her regular
attendance at cathedral service: and when they
heard of her constant visits to a certain parochial
school, and of her being sometimes seen carrying
a little covered basin to the cottages of the poor,
they began to try, and tempt her with more
urgent words, to accompany Miss Monro in
her frequent tea-drinkings at their houses. The
old dean, that courteous gentleman and good
Christian, had early become great friends with
Ellinor. He would watch at the windows of his
great vaulted library till he saw her emerge from
the garden into the Close, and then open the
deanery door, and join her, she softly adjusting
the measure of her pace to his. The time of his
departure from East Chester became a great
blank in her life, although she would never
accept, or allow Miss Monro to accept, his
repeated invitations to go and pay him a visit at
his country-place. Indeed, having once tasted
comparative peace again in East Chester Cathedral
Close, it seemed as though she was afraid of
ever venturing out of those calm precincts. All
Mr. Ness's invitations to visit him at his
parsonage at Hamley were declined, although he
was welcomed at Miss Monro's on the occasion
of his annual visit, by every means in their power.
He slept at one of the canon's vacant houses, and
lived with his two friends, who made a yearly
festivity to the best of their means to his honour,
inviting such of the cathedral clergy as were in
residence; or, if they failed, condescending to the
town clergy. Their friends knew well that no
presents were so acceptable as those sent to them
while Mr. Ness was with them; and from the
dean, who would send them a hamper of choice
fruit and flowers from Oxton Park, down to the
curate, who worked in the same schools as
Ellinor, and who was a great fisher, and caught
splendid trout—all did their best to help them
to give a welcome to the only visitor they ever
had. The only visitor they ever had, as far as
the stately gentry knew. There was one visitor
who came as often as his master could give him
a holiday long enough to undertake a journey to
so distant a place; but few knew of his being a
guest at Miss Monro's, though his welcome there
was not less hearty than Mr. Ness's—this was
Dixon. Ellinor had convinced him that he could
give her no greater pleasure at any time than by
allowing her to frank him to and from East
Chester. Whenever he came they were together
the greater part of every day: she taking him
hither and thither to see all the sights that she
thought would interest or please him; but they
spoke very little to each other during all this
companionship. Miss Monro had much more to
say to him. She questioned him right and left
whenever Ellinor was out of the room. She
learnt that the house at Ford Bank was splendidly
furnished, and no money spared on the
garden; that the eldest Miss Hanbury was very
well married; that Brown had succeeded to
Jones in the haberdasher's shop. Then she
hesitated a little before making her next inquiry.

"I suppose Mr. Corbet never comes to the
parsonage now?"

"No, not he. I don't think as how Mr. Ness
would have him; but they write letters to each
other by times. Old Job—you'll recollect old
Job, ma'am, he that gardened for Mr. Ness, and
waited in the parlour when there was company
—did say as one day he heered them speaking
about Mr. Corbet; and he's a grand counsellor
now—one of them as goes about at assize-time,
and speaks in a wig."

"A barrister you mean," said Miss Monro.

"Ay; and he's something more than that,
though I can't rightly remember what."

Ellinor could have told them both. They had
the Times lent to them on the second day after
publication by one of their friends in the Close,