CHAPTER VII.—THE TRAIL OF BLOOD.AT forty years of age Canon Athelstan Morency was a fine commanding figure of a man. Tall, handsome, and of aristocratic bearing, one glance at him was sufficient to suggest he came of no common stock. Indeed, it was not to be wondered at. He could trace his ancestors back to the time of the Norman Conquest, with the name of Morency carved deep in the glorious annals of our island story.
Married to the granddaughter of an earl, an honorary canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral at so early an age, and the incumbent of the fashionable church of St. Jude’s in South Kensington, it was undoubtable he was marked down for high preferment. His admirers, of whom there were legion, were confident he would be “My Lord Bishop” before he was fifty.
He had great intellectual gi
