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296 very new In that word? had we not a chaplain at the Residence, when we were in India?'

'Yes, papa, but you were a commandant then.'

'So I will be now, Miss Mannering,—in my own family at least.'

'Certainly, sir,—but will he read the church of England service?'

"The apparent simplicity with which I asked this question got the better of his gravity. 'Come, Julia,' he said, 'you are a sad girl, but I gain nothing by scolding you—of these two strangers, the young lady is one whom you cannot fail, I think, to love—the person whom, for want of a better term, I called chaplain, is a very worthy and somewhat ridiculous personage, who will never find out you laugh at him, if you don't laugh very loud indeed.'

'Dear papa, I am delighted with that part of his character—but pray, is the house we are going to as pleasantly situated as this?'