He had just completed his twenty-fourth year, he was greatly behindhand, having so far only secured the four minor orders; but on his return a sub-deaconship would be conferred on him, and an inviolable vow would bind him for evermore.

And the Guersaints' little garden at Neuilly, whither he had formerly so often gone to play, again distinctly appeared before him.

Marie's couch had been rolled under the tall trees at the far end of the garden near the hedge, they were alone together in the sad peacefulness of an autumnal afternoon, and he saw Marie, clad in deep mourning for her mother and reclining there with legs inert; whilst he, also clad in black, in a cassock already, sat near her on an iron garden chair.

For five years she had been suffering.

She was now eighteen, paler and thinner than formerly, but still adorable with her regal golden hair, which illness respected.