VERONICA.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "AUNT MARGARET'S TROUBLE."
IN FIVE BOOKS.

BOOK I.
CHAPTER I. A NEW VICAR FOR SHIPLEY.

THE Church Intelligence announced one
day, much to the fluttering of the village
of Shipley, and also to the fluttering of
some disappointed hearts in clerical breasts,
that the Reverend Charles Levincourt was
presented to the vacant living of Shipley-
in-the-Wold.

The Reverend Charles Levincourt was
presented to the living of Shipley-in-the-
Wold by Sir William Delaney, to whose
only son he had been tutor.

Sir William had always expressed his
sense of obligation to Mr. Levincourt for
the unremitting and judicious care he had
bestowed on his son James's education.
The young man was sickly in body and
inert in mind; nevertheless he had passed
through his university career in a fairly
creditable manner. This was mainly owing,
as every one admitted, to his tutor's
talents and zeal. Therefore when the not
very lucrative living of Shipley fell vacant,
it was the most natural thing in the world
that Sir William should bestow it on a
gentleman for whose services he professed
himself sincerely grateful. But neither
Shipley-in-the-Wold nor the world out of
the Wold by any means understood the
mainspring of this sincere gratitude.

James was the baronet's only son, but
Sir William was also the father of two
daughters. pan