It was half-past nine o’clock in the morning. The midsummer sun was already warm on the roofs and weathercocks of Milby. The church-bells were ringing, and many families were conscious of Sunday sensations, chiefly referable to the fact that the daughters had come down to breakfast in their best frocks, and with their hair particularly well dressed. For it was not Sunday, but Wednesday; and though the Bishop¹ was going to hold a Confirmation², and to decide whether or not there should be a Sunday evening lecture in Milby, the sunbeams had the usual working-day look to the haymakers already long out in the fields, and to laggard³ weavers⁴ just ‘setting up’ their week’s ‘piece’. The notion of its being Sunday was the strongest in young ladies like Miss Phipps, who was going to accompany her younger sister to the confirmation, and to wear a ‘sweetly pretty’ transparent⁵ bonnet⁶ with marabout feathers on the interesting occasion, thus throwing into relief the suitable simplicity⁷ of her sister’s attire⁸, who was, of course, to appear in a new white frock; or in the pupils at Miss Townley’s, who were absolved⁹ from all lessons, and were going to church to see the Bishop, and to hear the Honourable¹⁰ and Reverend Mr. Prendergast, the rector, read prayers—a high intellectual treat, as Miss Townley assured them. It seemed only natural that a rector, who was honourable, should read better than old Mr. Crewe, who was only a curate, and not honourable; and when little Clara

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