“Charles,” she said softly, as she brought him what he wanted, “is it to Edith you are going to write?”
“Yes,” he replied; and she stooped and kissed him approvingly. Then she left him alone, and he wrote as follows:—
“Dearest Edith,
“Come to me; come back to Omberley. I have had a dangerous illness, but through it, God has opened my eyes. I love you, darling. We will be married at once in the dear old church. Yours till death,
“Charles Santley.”
Two days afterwards, the reply came, in Ellen’s own handwriting, thus:
“I, too, have had an illness, in which, also, God has been pleased to open my eyes. I know, now, that it is all over between us. I shall never marry you; I shall never return to Omberley. I am going abroad with my aunt, who knows all I have suffered, and approves an eternal separation.
“Edith Dove.”
Some months later, the vicar resigned his living in the parish, and disappeared from the scene of his early labours. The year following, it was publicly stated in the religious newspapers that the Rev. Charles Santley, sometime Vicar of Omberley, had entered the Church of Rome.