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up by Gregory VII. The Hungarian Bishops, who had hitherto taken no oath save to the King, were much astonished at the demand, and the King forbade Crescentius to comply with it. After some little contention, the Pope was obliged to yield this point; but instead he required Kálmán to allow him the right of investiture. Hitherto the King had invested Bishops and Abbots with the ring and staff, without any interference from the Pope, the Archbishop of Gran being the Metropolitan. For a while, Kálmán strenuously resisted this attempt to deprive him of his prerogative, but like most other Princes of Europe, he at last determined to yield rather than run the risk of losing the more important right of nomination. (To be continued.)

THE ABBEY FARM.

BY AUGUSTA HAYWARD.

CHAPTER VIII.

'ARE you going out, my dear?' said Mr. Marvin, meeting Annie in hat and jacket in the little hall.

'Just come in, Papa dear. I want to take Mamma her medicine; Aunt Catherine is so stupid about not remembering it, and Mr. Hart told me not to let her miss it. That is true, Papa, about Miss Salterne!' What is it, my dear?' asked the Vicar, as if inclined to apologize for his forgetfulness of what must be an important piece of news, to judge by Annie's little excited manner; 'I don't exactly remember.'

'Why, her engagement, Papa! I was sure of it when Mr. Clune was here the other day; I had my suspicions long ago. And, wasn't it lucky? I happened to meet her this morning, and congratulated her; and she confessed it.'

'I think I would hardly have done that, my dear; you are not quite intimate enough, I should have said.'

'Oh, she didn't mind!' said Annie, reddening a little at the recollection of Miss Salterne's look of surprise on the occasion; indeed, she was not quite so freezingly polite as usual. I think I have got on a little better with her since Molly Nash died.'

'Never mind that now,' said her father, with his old propensity of 'shutting her up,' as she called it, on that obnoxious subject of the Park; 'I want you in the study, when you have been to your mamma. Go quietly, Annie; she may be asleep, and I would not have her disturbed. She was feeling very tired this morning.'

'This horrid east wind,' sighed Annie; and came down from the sick room, declaring that it was no wonder anyone was ill in such weather.

That is why I wanted to talk to you now, before I say anything to your mamma. She is decidedly not well enough to be worried by having any decision to make

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About Arthur?' asked Annie quickly.

'Yes, my dear. It is full time that something must be done for him;

and I have told you that the University is out of the question.'

'Papa!' interrupted Annie.

'Do not urge it, my dear.

Believe me, I feel it very much; ay,

very much indeed! But we can do nothing.'

And in pity to her father's evident distress, Annie kept in her remonstrances, and he went on speaking—

'That being the case, there is no time to lose in choosing something else-'

'Oh, Papa!' Annie could not help the impetuous interruption; 'wait a little bit longer! go on teaching him yourself! he is getting on so well, and he is so good since that horrid Tracy went, I know it won't hurt him to stay at home longer!'

'It is not on that account, my dear; it is that he must begin to learn other things. Classics will not be of much use to him now; and, very happily—you must try to think so too—he has a very fair prospect before him. Mr. Hatherly has offered to take him as a pupil-'

'To farming!' said Annie, in a tone that meant a good deal.

'At a very low premium. I could not afford much, you know, my dear; and Mr. Hatherly's kindness has relieved me of a great deal of anxiety. It is more than we had any reason to expect; you must remember that, Annie.'

'Yes, I know, Papa. And I am very glad, in some ways, and very grateful into the bargain, even if I don't look it!' with a little laugh; 6 only I can't help being a little bit disappointed.'

'Very naturally, my dear. I am, also, I confess."

'Yes, you did want Arthur to have been a clergyman. Isn't it hard?' 'No, my little girl; I think it is quite the reverse. You do not know what a sum many people would willingly give to put their boys into Arthur's place. And in other ways, that we cannot see, this may be the best for him. He would find a good many Tracys in Oxford or Cambridge, Annie.' 'I wonder what Mamma will say!' said Annie.

'I am afraid she will be disappointed; but she will bear it well. I must tell her about it soon.'

Mr. Marvin was evidently dreading this; but he had been right in saying that the disappointment would be well borne; or rather, as Mrs. Marvin declared, with every appearance of truth, there was so much to like in the new plan that she had actually no regrets at all. She looked at the subject, as she always did, on its brightest side; and thought more of the safety from college temptations, and the advantage of having her boy under Mr. Hatherly's protection, than even of the much-desired profession.

'It is such a relief to me,' said her cheerful voice, 'to leave him with such a good man. I could not have chosen anything better for him myself.'

'A farmer!' came in Aunt Catherine's provoking voice; 'dear me ! I am surprised. One of our family to be a farmer!'

For once Annie was almost tempted to forgive the old lady's sharp little ejaculations; and if she had not been afraid of vexing the invalid, would have cried, 'Bravo, Aunt Catherine! Anything to save Arthur from the entire disappointment of his hopes.

However, if he felt the change of plan, he bore it with a very brave, not to say joyous, face; the prospect of a perpetual enjoyment of the various delights of the Abbey, would have reconciled him to a worse fate than threatened; and he made no exception to the general gratitude that Mr. Hatherly received for his timely offer, from all but Annie.

'I think Annie regrets the classics more than Arthur,' said Mrs. Marvin, making a laughing apology for her silence.

Mr. Hatherly was spending the evening at the Vicarage, to talk matters over, and was more sociable and like his old self than he had been for a long time.

'Arthur does not know what is before him,' said Mr. Hatherly; 'he shall keep up his Latin and Greek, I can promise, Miss Marvin.'

'I am glad of that,' she answered stiffly; thinking even now of some possible help that might, by chance, turn up to send Arthur to college, and he may as well be kept up in his reading.'

Not even the boy's own pleasure in the arrangement could reconcile her to it; and she got ready his clothes and books with an obstinate feeling that he was somewhat of a martyr, and that his good spirits and merry anticipations were assumed not to vex his mother.

But, among her pitying fancies for Arthur, there was a very definite thought that she did her best to ignore-'What would the Salternes and Clunes think!'

It would have been so pleasant to mention incidentally to Miss Salterne, or better still to Mr. Clune, 'My brother is preparing for Oxford !'

Mr. Clune was at the Park again, without his sister. Even more enthusiastic than before on the subject of the new church, the young clergyman persecuted Mr. Salterne about it almost beyond his patience, and haunted the Abbey Farm, examining the proposed site and designs, approving everything that the 'tenant-farmer' had done or suggested, and speaking altogether so confidently of Mr. Salterne's future co-operation, that Mr. Hatherly began to reproach himself for gross injustice to his dignified landlord in accusing him of delay.

'I suppose you will adopt the simplest manner of endowment, if possible?' began Mr. Clune, coming in from one of his early rides to the Abbey ; 'advance a sum, and let the Ecclesiastical Commissioners meet it with another ?'

'If they will,' was Mr. Salterne's sarcastic commentary.

'That

'They must, in this case,' went on the young clergyman. first-rate fellow, Hatherly, is ready with a considerable amount for the purpose; and, if you will let me help-you know I have a right to do something now'-with a bright smile at Ada; 'it cannot be much, my parish is so poor; but if you will let me offer-'

'Thank you,' interrupted Mr. Salterne, hardly able to hide his annoyance sufficiently to give a tolerably grateful acknowledgment; 'I may call upon you possibly at some future time.'

'Let me give you a cheque now,' persisted the young clergyman; 'you will be wanting it soon for the building. The ground seems ready.' 'Your friend, Mr. Hatherly, seems to have been arranging my duties very comfortably,' returned the lord of the manor, quite unable to conceal his vexation; 'if I may be allowed to interfere in his projects, I was about to remark that there will be no immediate call for your money.'

Mr. Salterne proved himself perfectly right, as he was well able to do. There was no immediate demand for funds towards the building of the new church.

The subject appeared to die away at the Park-Ada not daring to broach it alone-when Edwin Clune left, somewhat suddenly, called away, Annie explained to ignorant auditors, by his sister's illness; and Mr. Hatherly's expectations became again 'a question of time,' and of a more indefinite time than ever.

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'But I have not given up hope,' was his constant answer to sympathizing grumblers at the delay in head-quarters; and the money is accumulating, not lying idle.'

They heard a good deal at the Vicarage of Mr. Hatherly's sayings and doings just now. Arthur's weekly visits, often with Mr. Hatherly, might have satisfied even Annie's perverse incredulity, that his new way of life was very far from a martyrdom to him.

Everything belonging to the Abbey continued to be the jolliest thing in the world,' in his histories of his proceedings; and as to Mr. Hatherly, his mildest eulogium was, 'There never was such a fellow in this world!'

Annie could not even complain on the ground of the forgetfulness of the Latin and Greek. It was soon discovered that Arthur was reading. classics, and that Mr. Hatherly had not only proved himself what Arthur called 'no end of a swell at it,' but was working his pupil harder in this direction than even in his agricultural studies. Altogether, that autumn would have been an unusually pleasant time at Salterne Vicarage, but for the sick room.

'Mamma seems hardly so well as usual this morning,' said Annie, coming down to breakfast one September morning, with a more anxious face than she liked her father to see; 'yes, I thought so!' looking out of the window, 'that horrid weather-cock is getting round to the east. No wonder!'

Mr. Marvin and Annie were complete Jarndyces in their persevering determination to lay any fluctuation on the wrong side to the east wind.

'I had noticed it,' answered her father slowly; indeed, I have been talking with your aunt about it, and she is going to do a very kind thing, my dear. Since your Mamma is decidedly no better, and the winter is coming near, it would be a satisfaction to have another medical opinion ; I could not have done it myself. We ought to be very grateful to your aunt for thinking of sending for Dr. Wightman.'

There was not much gratitude shown in the tone of Annie's answer— 'Dr. Wightman, Papa"

Dr. Wightman was the great medical authority of the neighbourhood, called in in almost all extreme cases: so that, as he said himself, he seldom came in time to do any good.

Annie knew this; sending for Dr. Wightman always seemed like an admission of no hope,' and she longed to rebel; as if by keeping him away the danger might be avoided.

'He will come to-day, I hope,' Mr. Marvin continued, in a quiet way that Annie understood to mean a great deal; ‘and you will be very brave, won't you, my dear child?'

'No, I sha'n't!' sobbed the poor girl impetuously; if he says that, I can't be patient then, Papa!'

'You must try, for the sake of the children, my dear ;' and then her father held her tight in his arms for a few sad minutes, and left her to watch for the doctor's arrival with as much patience as she could.

When the time came, she behaved better than she had promised. She steadily kept the little ones at their usual afternoon lessons, to secure their quiet, and as soon as the house-door was shut upon the two medical men, sent her charge out into the garden, and stood watching at the window till her father came in, with a look that was quite information enough.

Annie would not add to his trouble after that, and resolutely kept back the wild cries of complaint that seemed almost to choke her.

'Well, Papa, what is it?' she tried to ask calmly.

'Nothing very unexpected, my dear. We have been thinking of it for some time, and she has been looking forward to it, I know. It will be no shock to her, thank God.'

Is it quite, quite certain, Papa?' whispered Annie's choking voice, as she kept clinging to his arm; isn't there just one little tiny bit of hope?' You must not ask me, my dear,' returned the father, speaking even more quietly than usual; we must all try to be good and patient, and not to complain.'

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But I can't help complaining!' Annie cried; I can't be patient! it

is too much, it's too bad to happen! it can't be, Papa! Everything in the whole world will be changed!'

Run up to your mamma's room, my darling,' was the gentle reply; 'you will be better there.'

Mr. Marvin knew what he was doing.

The sense of desolation that was now altering, as she said, the whole

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