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stood at attention her loosened bonnet strings flying and her large black pocket well in evidence to the front of her skirt here s your letter mrs and as she took it from his hand with a he continued there is evidently nothing for it but to get the house in order by the day appointed and do your best to please the lady i can quite understand that you feel a little worried at having to prepare everything so quickly and unexpectedly but after all you must have often thought that miss s return to her old home was likely to happen at any time which i never did sir i declared mrs emphatically no sir never i for when the old squire died she was jest a slip of fifteen and her uncle the squire s own twin brother what had married an american with like a hundred million of money so i m told took her straight away and adopted her like and the pay for up the and grounds has been sent to us through a bank and so far we ve got to complain of bein all strictly honourable both ways but of miss we never heard a thing and mr he is the agent of the property and he ain t never said a word and we think me and my husband that he don t know of her back and should we tell him sir or would you reckon that we d better keep a still tongue in our heads till she do come for there s no why or wherefore she s though we did hear her poor uncle died two years ago and we wondered where she and her aunt with the hundred million was got to but she ll change her mind and not come after all i should certainly not count upon that if i were you mrs said your business is to keep everything in order for the lady s arrival but i don t think i really don t think you are at all bound to inform mr of the matter he will no doubt find out for himself god s good man or receive his orders direct from miss here he paused how old did you say she was when she went away from home fifteen sir that was nigh eleven years ago just one week after the squire s funeral and a year afore you came here sir she s on for seven and twenty now quite a woman then said lightly old enough to know her own mind at any rate do you remember her perfectly well sir a little creature all eyes and hair with a way of her curls about and a trick of and all over the place she used to climb the pine trees and sit in them and her father with the oh yes sir she was a terrible child to rule and it s gospel truth there was no ruling her for the came and went like the seasons one in t other out ay but the lord knows never forget the scream she gave when the squire was brought home from the hunting field stone dead here john turned his head towards her with an air of more interest than he had yet shown ah how was that he he was killed a fence went on mrs a fine handsome gentleman they say he d been wild in his youth anyhow he got married in london to a great court beauty so i ve been told and after the wedding they went travelling all over the world for a year and a half and just when they was expected ome mrs died with the birth of the child and he and the baby and the nurses all came back here and he never stirred away again himself till death took him at full gallop which is ow he always wished to die but poor miss and mrs sighed hard on her him ride o f so gay and well and cheery in the early to be brought home afore noon a corpse ay it was an of the lord i often when the wind goes through the pines near the house i think i ear her shriek now ay sir it was like the cry of as was its heart tore stood very silent listening this narrative waa new to him and even mrs s manner of relating it was not without a certain rough eloquence the ancient history of the he knew as well as he knew the value of their old house as a perfect of architecture but though he had traced the descent of the family from de god s good man of the twelfth century and his brother de who had it was founded a in the neighbourhood and had died during a pilgrimage to the holy land he had ceased to follow the tree with much attention or interest when the old name of de had into de and finally in the times of james i had settled down into there was a touch of old world tragedy in mrs s modem history of the young girl s shriek when she found herself suddenly on that fatal hunting morning and now continued mrs one at a time off each shoulder with considerable difficulty i s pose i must be goin and thank you kindly for it s a great weight off my mind to have told you just what s an the changes likely to come off and i do assure you i m of your opinion in letting shift for himself for if so be miss has the will of her own she had when she was a i shouldn t wonder if there was rough times in store for him but the lord only knows	33
what may chance to all of us i and here she heaved another dismal sigh as she tied the bonnet strings into a bow under her fat chin it s sinful of me to be rough times to any man i m likely in for them myself for a person s bound to be different at nigh seven and twenty to what she was at fifteen and the modem ways of ain t old ways the lord be merciful to us all and i do confess it s a bit at my time of life to think as how i ve lived in s all these years and now for all i can tell me and william may have to shift and where we ll go the lord only knows now don t anticipate misfortune mrs i said beginning to shake off the indescribable feeling of annoyance against which he had been fighting for the past few minutes and his usual quiet air of cheerfulness miss is not likely to dismiss you unless you offend her the great thing is to avoid offence and to do even more than your strict duty in making her old home look its best and brightest for her return and here he hesitated for a moment then went on of course if i can do anything to help you i will thank you sir i m sure most kindly said mrs two or three times in a of gratitude i shall take the liberty of asking you to step god s good man up during the week to see how things appears to you yourself aiid as for servants there s no old enough at the school for servants so i ll be goin to with the s cart to morrow to see what i can do ah it s an mission i m goin on there ain t no to be got of the old kind as far as i can make out they all wants to be fine nowadays and marry not quite so bad as that i think mrs laughed holding open the door of the study for her to pass out as a broad hint that the interview must be considered at an end there are plenty of good industrious intelligent girls in england ready and willing to enter domestic service if we make it worth their while and i m sure no one can teach you anything in that line good morning mrs i good morning sir and you ll step up to the when convenient some afternoon certainly if you wish it whenever convenient to yourself mrs mrs again at the respect for her own importance which was implied in s last sentence and slowly out the watching her with a smile as she trotted down the passage from his study to a door which led to the kitchen and now she ll go and tell all her story again to and the cook he said to himself and how she will enjoy herself to be bless the woman what a tongue she no wonder her husband is deaf i he re seated himself at his desk and taking up a bundle of accounts connected with the church and the school tried to ox his attention on them but in vain his mind wandered he was obliged to own to himself that he was irritated at the news that s which had been so long a sort of show house was again to be inhabited and by one who was its owner too ever since he had bought the living of st he had been accustomed to take many solitary walks through the lovely woods surrounding the residence without any fear of being considered a and he had even strolled through the wide old fashioned gardens with as little restraint as they had belonged to himself mrs the housekeeper being the last person in the world to forbid her minister to enter wherever he would he had passed long hours of delightful in the old library and many of meditation in the picture gallery where the portrait of th god s good man lady in the vi let velvet mary de had often caught his eye and charmed his fancy when the setting sun had its rich colouring and had given life to the face half half sweet which forth from the old canvas like a rose with light on its now all these pleasant were finished the mistress of s would certainly object to a wandering parson in her house and grounds probably she was a very imperious disagreeable young woman full of the light scorn lack of sentiment and cheap common to the smart lady of a period and if it were true that she had been for so many years in the charge of an american aunt with a hundred millions the chances were ten to one that she would be an exceedingly unpleasant neighbour he gave a short impatient sigh ah well i only hope she will put a stop to the of the fine old trees in her domain he said half aloud if no one else in the village has the pluck to draw her attention to the of i will but so far as other matters go my walks in the woods are ended yes and he gently patted the head of the faithful animal who with sagacity instinctively that his master was somewhat annoyed was with caressing against his knee our by the big elms and silvery and under the beautiful tall pines are over and we shouldn t be human if we weren t just a trifle sorry sir is bad enough as a neighbour but he s a good three miles off at hall thank heaven whereas s is but a quarter of an hour s walk from this gate we ve had pleasant times in the dear	33
old fashioned gardens you and i but it s all over the mistress of the is coming home and i m positively certain yes old boy positively certain that we shall both her in hen england s great queen victoria the good was still enjoying her first happy years of wedded life and society under her gentle sway was less and much more sincere in its code of than it is nowadays the village of st together with the adjacent post town of enjoyed considerable importance in county very great county personages were daily to be seen themselves quite simply among their own and the hunt ball gathered together a veritable of fair women and brave men who loved their homes better than all the and movement of town and who possessed for the most part that sweet content which gives strength to the body and to the mind there was then a natural gaiety and spontaneous cheerfulness in english country life that made such a life good for human happiness and the jolly who with their kept open house and celebrated harvest home and christmas festival with all the and vigour of a sane and manhood by any sickly taint of morbid and indifferent were the beneficent rulers of a rural population than has ever been seen since their day squire the elder grandfather of the present of s had been a splendid specimen of the fine old english gentleman all of the time and his wife one of the as well as one of tl ie kindest hearted women that ever lived had been justly proud of her husband devoted to her children and a true friend and to the neighbourhood her four sons two of whom were all great lads built on their vigorous father s model were considered the best looking young men in the county and by their fond mother were judged as the best hearted but as it often happens nature was in their regard and turned them all out wild of a breed than might have been expected from their the eldest took to hard drinking and was killed at chasing the second god s good man was drowned while bathing one of the named the younger by a few minutes after nearly falling into depths of degradation by gambling with certain noble and exalted personages of renown saved himself as it were by the skin of his teeth through marriage with a rich american girl whose father was blessed with unlimited oil mines he was thereby enabled to in wealth with an and shattered nervous power while capricious fate played him her usual trick in her usual way by denying him any to his married millions his brother wedded for love and chose as his mate a beautiful girl without a penny whose grace and charm had dazzled the london world of fashion for about two seasons and she had died at the age of twenty in giving birth to her first child the girl whom her father had named all these chances and changes of life however to the leading family of the neighbourhood had left very little mark on st which under the light shadow of the eastern hills by its clear flowing river very much as it had always in the old days and very much as it would always do even if london and paris were consumed by the memory of the first old squire who died peacefully in his bed all alone his wife having passed away two years before him and his two living twin sons being absent was frequently mixed with stories of the other old squire robert the elder twin who was killed in the hunting field and indeed it often happened that some of the more ancient and villagers were not at all sure as to which was which the had been shut up for ten years the family had not been heard of during all that period and the s recollection of their late landlord as well as of his one daughter was more vague and confused than the place had been managed and the cottage rents collected by the detested agent a fact which did not such remembrance of the as still existed in the minds of the people however nothing in the general aspect and mental attitude of the village had altered very much since the early except the church that from a mere ruin had under john s become a of architecture so unique and perfect as to be the wonder and admiration of all who beheld it and whereas in the early reign a few people stopped at because it was a county town and because there was an inn there where they could put up their god s good man so a few people now went to st best because there was a there worth looking at they came by train to where the railway line stopped and then took carriage or the seven miles between that town and st rest to see the church and having seen it promptly went back again for one of the great charms of the little village hidden under the hills was that no could stay a night in it unless he or she took one spare room there was only one at the small public house which away up round a comer of the street under an of ivy and pushed its old through the dark leaves with a half air as though somewhat ashamed of its own existence with the exception of this one room in this one public house there was no accommodation for visitors never will the rash who ventured once to appeal to the s wife for rooms in her cottage forget e of his reception rooms and mrs frost setting her arms well surveyed the scornfully through an open doorway rendered doubly inviting by the wealth	33
simple and monotonous round of duty it offered when he had first arrived there he found that the church consisted of some thick stone walls of the early period built on a plan the stones being all uniformly wrought and close together with a beautiful ruined divided from the main body of the building by massive columns which supported on their the fragments of lofty arches of an transition from the to the early pointed english style there were also the hollow of several windows and one almost perfect pierced circular window to the east god s good man carved with of natural fruit and foliage which were scarcely injured by the mark of time but rough and hands had been at work to spoil and the classic remains of the time worn edifice and some of the windows had been actually out and to admit of the of modem timber which awkwardly supported a hideous iron roof on the top of which was erected a kind of tin hen in which a sharp bell with rapidity for sunday service outside the building was thus rendered inside it was almost in its rank there were several rows of narrow made of common painted deal there was a brown stone and a light pine wood pulpit a small stood in one comer by a faded red curtain and a general air of the cheap and hovered over the whole concern d the new incumbent gazing aghast at the scene was triumphantly informed that sir had been generous enough to roof and restore the church in this artistic manner out of his own pocket for the comfort of the villagers and moreover that he actually condescended to attend divine service under the iron roof which he had so liberally erected nay it had been even known that sir had on one or two occasions himself read the lessons in the absence of the late who was subject to sore throats and was constantly compelled to call in outside assistance to all this information john said nothing he was not concerned with sir or any other county in the management of his own affairs a fortnight after his arrival he quietly announced to his congregation that the church was about to be entirely restored according to its original lines of architecture and that a temporary building would be erected on his s own land for the accommodation of the x during such time as the restoration should be in progress this announcement brought about s first acquaintance with his richest neighbour sir that gentleman having been accustomed to have his own way in everything concerning st rest for a considerable time straightway wrote expressing his surprise and indignation at the mere assumption that any restoration was required for the church beyond what he had effected at his own expense the number of was exceedingly small too small to warrant any further expenditure for a place of worship which god s good man that some years ago it had been a mere rain and that the people had been compelled to walk or drive to in order to attend church at all on sundays sir thought was now very comfortable and satisfactory in fact sir concluded mr would be very ill advised if he made any attempt to raise money for such a useless purpose as the entire restoration of the church of st best and mr might as well be at once made aware that sir himself would not give a penny towards it to which somewhat rambling and heated john replied with civil as follows the rev john presents his compliments to sir and in answer to his letter to say that he has no intention of raising any to the cost of restoring the church which in its present condition is totally unfit for divine service having secured the living mr will make the restoration the object of his own personal care and will also be pleased to sir for any to which he may have been put in the roof and for the immediate convenience of the who have he understands expressed their sense of obligation to sir for kindly providing them with such temporary shelter from the changes of the weather as seemed to be necessary this calm when received at hall had the effect of a sudden stiff breeze on the surface of hitherto quiet waters sir in a brand new suit surmounted by a very high clean stiff shirt collar was sitting at breakfast in what was formerly known as the great a memory of the days when had been a large and important but which was now turned into a modem antique dining room and as he read with the aid of his gold spectacles the chill severely polite letter of the new parson he flew into a sudden violent passion damn tbe fellow he jumping up in haste and striking out an arm towards the very direction in which a mild young footman was just approaching him with a bottle of on a tray damn him the footman staggered back in terror and the over on to the carpet there you go you clumsy gaping idiot roared sir growing purple with increasing fury god s good man and here he whirled round on his only daughter an and severely look at this fool this staring all the on the carpet i wish he had to pay for it he ll take an hour to get a cloth and wipe it up i why did you engage such a damned ass eh miss preserved a prudent silence seeing that the butler a serious looking personage with a resigned to ill usage was already engaged in assisting the footman to remove the remains of the from the offended gaze of his master like his damned impudence broke out sir again with some reluctance his seat at the breakfast table	33
i shall soon bring that fellow to his senses declared sir on the morning which first saw the of battle thrown down i shall teach him that parson or no parson he will have to respect my authority god bless my soul does he think i m going to be dictated to at my time of hfe he addressed these observations to his daughter miss but whether she heard them or not was scarcely apparent at any rate she did not answer having finished her breakfast she pulled out some knitting from an embroidered bag hanging at her side and set her needles while her father in the face and more of mood than ever went out to see what he could do to save his iron roof from the hand of the but as he might have known if his had allowed him to weigh the pro s and of the situation his authority was of no avail an angry letter to the bishop of the only drew forth a reply from the bishop s god s good man to the effect that as the john was now the possessor of the living of st and had obtained a faculty for proper restoration of the church which was to be carried out at the said john s own risk and personal expenditure the matter was not open to any outside discussion sir s fury became so excessive that he actually shut up hall and went away for a whole year greatly to the relief of the editor of the who was able to dismiss him with a comfortable paragraph thus sir has left hall for a tour round the world miss her distinguished father then followed a spell of peace and the restoration of the church at st rest was quietly proceeded with lovingly and wi h tenderest care for every stone every broken fragment john together the ruined shrine of ancient days and managed at last to trace and recover the whole of the original plan it had never been a large building its proportions being about the same as those of chapel near the task of restoration was costly especially when carried out with such perfection and regard to detail but nothing to make it complete and the whole thing himself au the semi educated suggestions of the modem and faithfully following out the ideas of the particular period in which the church was originally designed by those to whom the building of a god s house was a work of solemn prayer and praise the ancient stones were preserved and wherever modem was used it was worked in to look as time worn as the walls while the windows were filled with genuine old stained glass purchased by degrees from different parts of england each fragment being properly a roof simple yet noble in outline covered in the building ornamented with delicately rounded with hollows so planned as to give the most forcible effects of light and shade according to the style of english early pointed work and the only thing that was left was the pierced circular window above the which sought to fill with stained glass of such antiquity and beauty of design that he was only able to secure it bit by hit at long intervals while engaged in collecting this he judged it best to fill the window ordinary clear glass rather than put in inferior stuff god s gk od man for the appeared to demand special reverence from the nature of a wonderful discovery made in it during the work of restoration a discovery which greatly helped to sustain and confirm the name of church and village as st rest and to entirely the frequently offered suggestion that it could ever have heen meant for st east and this is how the discovery happened one never to he forgotten morning when the workmen were away at the floor of the one of their came suddenly in contact with a hard substance which gave back a echo when the blow of the came down upon it working with caution and gradually clearing away a large quantity of loose stones broken pieces of and earth a curious iron handle was discovered attached to a large screw which was apparently deep in the ground was at once informed of this strange find and hastened to the spot to examine the mysterious object he was not very long in its nature this is some very ancient method of he said turning round to the workmen with an excitement he could barely conceal there is something precious underneath in the ground something which can probably be raised by means of this handle and screw dig round it about a yard away from the centre the earth gently be very careful i they obeyed and all that day stood watching them at work his mind divided hope and fear and his spirit moved by the passionate exultation of the whose studies and are about to be rewarded with unexpected treasure towards sunset the men came upon a large piece of what appeared to be closely with of worn gold and bearing on its surface the of a cross a drawn sword and a crown of laurel leaves with thorns the whole most wrought and very little injured as this slowly came to light summoned all hands to assist him in turning the great iron screw which now stood out upright some three or four feet from the they had been digging wondering at his fancy as they termed it they however had full reliance on his proved knowledge of what he was about and under his guidance they all applied themselves to the quaint and iron handle which had been the first thing discovered and with considerable difficulty began to god s good man turn it round and round aa tbey proceeded laboriously in this task while the screw and	33
groaned under the process with a noise as of timber all at once the of moved and rose upward about an inch to it cried his eyes sparkling to it again and harder we shall have it with us in an hour i and truly in somewhat less than an hour the strange had lifted what it must often have lifted in a similar way in years a magnificent and perfectly preserved measuring some six or seven feet long by three feet wide covered with exquisite carving at the sides representing roses among thorns the flowers having evidently at one time been with gems and which even now bore traces of gold round the lid there was some dim which was scarcely the lid itself was firmly closed and strongly exclamations of wonder admiration and excitement broke from all who had been engaged in the work of and presently the whole village ran out to see the wonderful of a forgotten past all chattering all all staring alone stood silent has head his hands clasped he knew that only some great saint or holy could have ever been so in ancient days and the elaborate system of used seemed to prove that the body laid within that wrought and gold must have been considered to be of that peculiar nature termed miraculous and worthy to be lifted from its resting place into the on certain particular occasions for the homage and reverence of the people the sim poured down upon the beautiful object lying there on the groups of workmen who instinctively s example had their heads on the wrinkled worn faces of old village men and women on the bright waving locks of young girls and the clear eyes of children all gazing at the strange treasure their ruined church had given up to the light of a modem day presently the chief workman asked in a hushed voice shall we break it open sir no replied gently but firmly that would be we may not lightly disturb the dead i the ashes in this wonderful must be those of one who was dear to the old time church they shall rest in peace and as this is evidently fixed by its god s good man age system exactly in the middle of the the altar we will let it remain there and occupy its own original place the could not have a ornament and so in the middle of the between the altar and the steps which separated that part of the church from the main body of the building the mysterious lay under the warm light of the eastern window and people who were interested in came from far and near to see it though they could make no more of it than himself had done the cross and sword might possibly indicate the and thorn fame certainly there were no signs that the dumb of that sealed was a monarch of merely earthly power and state when the came to be thoroughly and polished part of the inscription could be in the following letters of worn gold in in m ma r but to what perished identity these significant words applied remained an impenetrable mystery every old record was carefully searched every scrap of ancient history wherein the neighbourhood of st rest had ever been concerned was turned over and over by the patient and john who followed up many suggestive tracks eagerly and lost them again when apparently just on the point of finding some sure clue till at last he gave up the problem in despair and contented himself and bis by accepting the evident fact that in the old church at one or another some saint or holy had been buried hence the name of st rest or the saint s rest which had become attached to the village but at what exact period such saint or had lived and died was when the restoration of the sacred shrine was completed and an expectant congregation filled it to overflowing to assist at the solemn service of its re to the worship of god not one among them all but was deeply impressed by the of the restored with its beautiful columns and delicate like a bower of protection over the altar and over that wonderful white lying god s good man snow like in the rays of the sun which flashed dear on its stray bits of gold and broken of gems sending a straight beam through the eastern window on the one word like a torch of hope from beyond the grave bishop s old college friend came to perform the ceremony of and this was the first time the inhabitants of st rest had seen a real bishop for many years much excitement did his presence create in that quiet the more especially as he proved to be a bishop somewhat out of the common tall and in form he had a face which might almost be called so alive was its expression so intense and passionate was the light of the deep dark melancholy eyes that burned from under their brows like lamps set in a high watch tower of intellect when he preached his voice with its deep mellow thrilled very strangely to the heart and every gesture every turn of his head expressed the activity of the keen soul pent up within his apparently frail body the sermon he gave on the occasion of the re of the church of st rest was powerful and but scarcely and therefore was not altogether pleasing to sir he chose as his text behold i show a mystery we shall not sleep but we shall all be changed and on this he setting forth the joys of the spiritual life as opposed to the physical on the positive certainty of individual existence after death and weaving	33
into his discourse some remarks on the saint whose had been from its long hidden and set again where it had originally stood in the middle of the he spoke in hushed and solemn tones of the possibility of the holy spirit of that one being present among them that day helping them in their work joining in their prayers of and perhaps upon them additional blessing at which statement given with poetic earnestness and sir stared breathed hard and murmured in his daughter s ear a roman i the man is a roman i but notwithstanding sir s for the manner in which the bishop dealt his subject and his numerous allusions to saints in heaven and their probable of their friends on earth the sermon was a deeply impressive one and lingered long in the memories oi those who had heard it softening their hearts inspiring their god s good man souls and awakening them to hopeful considerations of a happier end than the mere grave ten years however had now passed since john had bought the living and of these ten years three had been occupied in the restoration of the church so that seven had elapsed since it had been consecrated and during those seven years not once had bishop been seen again in st best he remained in the thoughts of the people as an association with whom they would fain have had more to do sir had passed from the into the very little altered still upright still and obstinate of temperament he ruled the neighbourhood especially as much as was possible to him now that much of the management of st best had passed under the but no less firm authority of john whose will was nearly always found in balanced opposition to his the two seldom met sir was fond of county society it moreover miss wearing steadily on towards fifty had as the saying is secretly set her cap at the john and the mere sight of the set his nerves on edge himself strictly to his duties to the care of the church to the interests of his young and old to the cultivation of his garden and to the careful preservation of all the natural beauties of the landscape around him john lived very much the life of a holy man of days while sir built and a hospital at gave several for and shooting occasionally patted the heads of a few straggling school children round among his scattered and wrote about his own fine presence and open hearted hospitality for publication in the whenever he entertained a house party at hall which he very frequently did he kept well in touch with london folk and to london folk he was fond of speaking of st best as my little village but when london folk came to for themselves as to the nature of his possession they invariably discovered that it was not sir s little village at all but the john s little village hence arose certain and cross currents of feeling leading to occasional mild and local excitement up to the present time however had on the whole lived a tranquil life such as best suited his tranquil and philosophic temperament and his occasional with god s good man sir only served to give and to the quiet round of his daily habits now all unexpectedly there was to be a break a new source of annoyance in the intrusion of a feminine authority a modem squire ess who no doubt would probably bring modem ways with her into the little old world place who would hunt and shoot and smoke perhaps even swear at her who could tell she would not she could not interfere with the church or iti minister were she ever so much miss of s but she could if she liked about with many other matters and there could be no doubt that as the visible and resident mistress of the most historic house in the neighbourhood she would be what is called a social influence and not for good mused john during a meditative stroll in his garden on the even of the may day on which he had heard the disturbing news certainly not for good i he raised his eyes to the sky where the curved bow of a new moon hung clear and bright as a polished all was intensely still the day had been a very busy one for him the children s dinner and their may games had kept his hands full and not till sunset when the of the church began to ring for evening service had he been able to snatch a moment to himself for quiet contemplation the freshness of the garden by the opening blossoms of the imparted its own sense of calm and grave repose to mind and as he paced slowly up and down the gravel walk in front of his study window watching the placid beauty of the deepening night a slight sigh escaped him it cannot be for good he repeated a woman trained as she must have been trained since with all her finer by perpetual contact with the and evidences of an excess of wealth probably surrounded too by the pitiful of a bred american society too ignorant to admit or recognise its own she must have almost forgotten the stately traditions of the fine old family she springs from one must not expect the motto of oblige to weigh with modem young women more s the pity i m afraid the mistress of s will be a disturbing element in the village breeding discontent and trouble where there has been till now comparative peace and a fortunate simplicity of life i m sorry i this would have been a perfect first of may but god s good man for the news of her	33
in a low clear tone you are quite at liberty to practise as usual sir and his friends will not disturb you miss smiled and bent her head passing by the visitors with an easy and assured step and made her way to where the organ small but sweet and powerful occupied a comer near the while she busied herself in opening the instrument and arranging her music took advantage of the diversion created by her entrance to address himself to the knight if i can be of service to your friends in explaining anything about the church they may wish to know pray command me sir he said but i presume that you and mr here he glanced at the with a slight smile have pointed out all that is necessary on the contrary i said mr of the and savage with a smoothly air we are really quite in the dark i do we understand for example that the restoration of this church is entirely due to your generosity or to assistance from public funds and the restoration is due not to my generosity replied but merely to my sense of what is fitting for divine service i have had no assistance from any fund or from any individual because i have not sought it there was a pause during which mr fixed a pair of gold glasses on his nose and gazed through them at sir whose countenance had grown purple in hue either with exterior heat or inward vexation i thought sir he began slowly when mr interrupted him by the now what period would you mr for this i am myself inclined to think it of the century a soft low strain of music here crept through the church the village was beginning her practice she had a delicate touch and the sounds her fingers pressed from the organ keys were full and solemn and sweet his grace god s good man i the duke of loudly he hated music and always made some animal noise of his own to drown it what matters the period i murmured his thin hand through his thick hair is it not sufficient to see it here among us with us of us god bless my soul i hope it is not of us i sir with a kind of fat chuckle which seemed to from his stiff collar rather than from his throat ashes to ashes of course we are all aware of that but not just yet i not just yet i i am unable to fix the period satisfactorily to my own mind said quietly both sir and his observations on the beyond though i have gone through considerable with respect to the matter so i do not any opinion there is however no doubt that at one time the body contained in that must have been of the nature termed by the old church miraculous that is to say it must have been supposed to be in times of plague or famine for there are several portions of the which have evidently been worn away by the frequent pressure or touch of hands on the surface probably in days when this neighbourhood was visited by floods or other troubles the priests raised the coffin by the system of which we discovered when and which is still in working order and allowed the people to pass by and lay their hands upon it with a special prayer to be relieved of their immediate sickness or sorrow there were many such miraculous in the early part of the twelfth and centuries exactly said mr i imagine you may be right mr it is evidently a of the very earliest phases of the christian as he spoke the last words looked at him a fine smile hovered on his lips it is as you say he rejoined calmly it is a visible token of the time when men believed in an unseen force more potent than themselves the duke of again and his friend lord who up to the present had occupied the time in staring vaguely about him and anxiously feeling his said hurriedly oh look here sir er i say er hadn t we better be going there s lady elizabeth coming to lunch and you know she can t bear to be kept waiting god s good man never you know not to be there to see her when she arrives he le we should never get over it in london or out of london my life i do assure sir s chest swelled his collar round his throat and his voice became richly as under the influential suggestion of another personage he replied indeed you are rights my dear lord to keep lady elizabeth waiting would be an offence against all the hum ha er against all the mr we must go lady elizabeth is coming to lunch with us at you have no doubt heard of her eldest daughter of the earl of yes we must really be going i think i may say may i not your grace here he bent towards the that we are all highly pleased with the way in which mr has effected the restoration of the church i oh i don t know anything at all about it replied his grace with the air of a sporting groom no taste at all in churches and fm not taking any on old it s a nice little chapel just enough for a small village i should say after all don t know you only want very little accommodation for a couple of hundred and whether it s old or new architecture doesn t matter to em a brass these observations were made with a rambling air of vague self which the speaker evidently	33
fancied would pass for wit and wisdom said nothing his brow was placid and his countenance altogether peaceful he was listening to the solemnly sweet flow of a which miss was on the organ the notes rising and falling and anon soaring up again like words striving to carry themselves to heaven i think said mr that whatever fault the building may have from a strictly accurate point of view which is a matter i am not prepared to go into without considerable time given for due study and consideration it is certainly the most attractive edifice of its kind that i have seen for some time it great credit on you mr no doubt the work gave you much personal pleasure it certainly did so replied john and fm afraid i am enough to be satisfied with the general result so god s good man far as it goes with the exception of the eastern window of course i ah that eastern window i sighed the with an air of languor which was in contrast with his coarse and commonplace appearance that is a sad sad flaw i a terrible i i made up my mind from the first pursued his voice seeming to float pleasantly on the tide of music with which the little was just then filled that nothing but the most genuine and old stained glass should that fine circular rose carving and those lance so i am collecting it slowly bit by bit for this purpose it will take time and patience no doubt but i think and hope that success will be the end of the task i have set myself in the meantime of course the effect of plain glass where there should be only the richest colouring is decidedly crude i he smiled slightly and there was an uncomfortable pause sir took out a red handkerchief covered with yellow spots and blew his nose violently therein while the mr nodded his large head as one who receives doubtful information with kindly mr looked faintly amused i understand i said the light of the and savage slowly you seek perfection i he smiled a pallid smile but on the whole surveyed with more interest than he had hitherto done who had during the last couple of minutes stepped up to the now stood gazing at the of the supposed saint with a kind of melancholy interest the only words of the inscription in he sighed in how simple how new how fresh to think that anyone ever held such a child s faith the church is still supposed to hold it said steadily and her ministers also otherwise religion is a farce and its professors much less honest than the trusted servant who his master s money smiled and one thoughtfully so you actually believe what you preach i he murmured strange you are more of an antiquity than the consecrated dust enclosed in that believe me god s good man much more much exclaimed the fantastic to believe in anything at all is so remote i so very remote i and yet so new so fresh made no reply he never argued on religious matters moreover with persons minded in the manner of those before him it seemed useless to even offer an opinion they exchanged meaning glances with each other and followed sir who was now moving down the central aisle of the church towards the door of exit holding the duke of familiarly by the arm and accompanied by lord walked silently with them till passing out of the church they all stood in a group on the broad pathway which led to the open road where the a large and pair stood waiting together a the property of the reverend mr thank you mr i then said sir with a air as of one who graciously a benefit on the silence by breaking it thank you for er for er the pleasure of your company this er this morning my friend the duke and lord and er our rising poet mr and er mr have been delighted yes er delighted of course you know my opinion ha ha ha you know my opinion it is the same as it ever was i never change when i have once made up my mind it is a i have said already and i say it again that the church was quite good enough for such people as live here in its original condition and that you have really spent a great deal of cash on a very needless work i mustn t be rude no no no but you know the old fools and their money ha ha ha but we shan t quarrel oh dear no it has cost me nothing i am glad to say ha ha nor anybody else now if miss of s had been here when you began this restoration business of yours she might have had something to say ha ha ha i she always has something to say you think she would have objected coldly oh i won t go so far as that no eh your grace we won t go so far as that the duke of thus suddenly looked round and smiled won t go so far as what he asked didn t catch it i was talking of said sir with god s good man a kind of tou know her of course knows her more or less charming girl charming van ha ha and sir laughed and again till certain veins moved by emotion largely on his forehead his grace laughed also but shortly and indifferently oh as as she s the one who s just had a with	33
her rich american aunt i believe they don t speak after years of devotion eh so like women ain t it the who had been stooping over his to set something right that was invariably going wrong with that particular machine and who was than ever in the face with his efforts now looked up miss is coming back to the to reside there so i hear he said very dull for a woman accustomed to london and paris i expect she ll stay about ten days one never knows one cannot tell sighed sometimes to the female mind with social there comes a strange longing for peace for the scent of roses for the yellow shine of for the song of the birds i for the breath of cows mr smiled and picked a tall nodding in the grass at his feet such aspirations in the fair sex are absolutely harmless he said let us hope the lady s wishes may find their limit in a soothing pastoral i ha ha ha laughed sir you are deep my dear sir you are very deep i god bless soul deep as a well no wonder people are afraid of you clever clever i m afraid of you myself i come along come along can i assist your grace here he pushed aside with a smothered damn i the footman who stood holding open the door of the and gave the duke of a hand to help him into the carriage now lord please you next mr come come mr think of lady elizabeth she will be arriving at the hall before we are there to receive her terrible terrible come along we re all ready had turned to permit me to call and see you alone he said i cannot just now appreciate the poetry of your work in the church as i should do as i ought to do as i must do the present company is one requires the music of nature god s good man the thoughts the dreams but no more at present i i should like to talk with you on many matters some wild sweet morning if you have no objection was amused at the same time he was not very eager to respond to this of closer with one who by his dress manner and method of speech proclaimed himself a of the modem school of but he was nothing if not courteous so he replied briefly i shall be pleased to see you of course mr but i must warn you that i am a very busy man i should not be able to give you much time no explanations i understand and pressed his hand with enthusiasm the very fact that you are busy in a village like this adds to the peculiar charm of your personality it is so strange i so new so fresh he smiled and again pressed hands good bye the mood will send me to you at the fitting moment he clapped his hat more firmly on his red locks and into the waiting sir followed him and the footman shut to the door of the vehicle with a bang as unnecessary as his master s previous damn good morning mr then shouted the knight of bone melting much obliged to you i m sure raised his hat with brief and then as the carriage rolled away addressed the reverend mr who was throwing himself with like across his you follow i suppose yes i m at hall the duke wants to consult me about his family records you know i m a bit of an authority on such points smiled i believe you are but mind you the deeds carefully he said a slip in the descent of the might affect the whole of the british empire a light shone in his clear blue eyes a flashing spark of battle stayed his a moment on it uneasily goes back a good way he said i shall take him up when i have through the history of the god s good man i m on that scent now i shall make a good bit of business directly miss returns she ll pay for anything that will help her to her back and put more side on really ejaculated coldly i should have thought her would have saved her from not a bit of it i declared beginning to start the muscles of his grand legs with energy as a and vain as a ta i and fixing a small cap firmly on the back of his very large head he worked his wheel with regularity and was soon out of sight stood alone in the churchyard lost for a brief space in meditation the solemn strains of the organ which the was still playing floated softly out from the church to the air and the grave melodious murmur made an of harmony to the clear bright of a which beating its wings against the rose ever higher and higher above him what petty souls we he murmured here am i feeling actually indignant because this fellow who has less education and knowledge than my dog to have some acquaintance with miss what does it matter what business is it of mine if she cares to accept information from an what is it to do with me nothing yet what a ass the fellow is upon my word it does me good to say it a ass and sir is another he laughed and lifting his hat from his forehead let the soft wind breathe refreshing coolness on his uncovered hair there are decided limits to christian love he said the laughter still dancing in his eyes i defy i positively defy anyone to love the columns and are all wrong are they and he gave a glance	33
back at the beautiful little church in its exquisite design and completed perfection out of keeping with early walls wise he all periods of transition as if they had never existed as if they had no meaning for the as well as the as if the movement upward from the to the early pointed style showed no indication of progress and whereas a church should always be a veritable sermon in stone expressive of the various generations that have wrought their best on it he limits himself to the begin god s good man of things i i wonder what was in the beginning of things possibly an smiling he walked to the gate communicating with his own garden opened it and passed through was waiting for him on the lawn and greeted him with the usual he returned to his desk and to the composition of his sermon but his thoughts were inclined to wander sir the duke of and lord hovered before him like three dull in a cheap show and he was inclined to look up the name of in one of the handy guides to contemporary biography in order to see if that and fish like personage had really done anything in the world to merit his position as a shining of the savage and accustomed as he was to watch the ebb and flow of modern literature he had not yet sighted either the straw or the cork among the and of that tide and ever and again sir s coarse chuckle combined with the covert smiles of sir s distinguished friends echoed through his mind in connection with the approaching dreaded invasion of miss into the happy of the village of st rest till he experienced a sense of pain and aversion almost to anger why he asked himself seeing she had stayed so long away from her childhood s home could she not have stayed away altogether the swift and brilliant life of london was surely far more suited to one who according to was rapid as a and vain as a but was always celebrated for accuracy in his statements no certainly not yet then something seemed to fire him with a sudden resolution for he the first lines of the sermon he had begun and altered his text which had been glory honour and peace to every man that good and in its place he as a more subject of discourse the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of god of great price warm bright weather continued morning after morning dawned in sunshine and when saturday concluded the first five days of the may the inhabitants of st rest were disposed to that it was just possible they might have what they called a spell of fair weather saturday was the general cleaning up day in the village the day when of water were set out in unexpected places for the to trip over when the old poured with that over the toes of too hasty by when cottage windows were violently at with the aid of garden and and when adam frost the was always to be found meditating and even drinking beer in a quiet comer of the churchyard because he was afraid to go home owing to the persistent energy of his better half who washed down everything cleaned out everything and had as she forcibly expressed it the sunday meals on her mind it was a day too when released from his duties at the at noon took a thoughtful stroll by himself aware that his was the kitchen and wouldn t have him about and when john having finished his notes for the sunday s sermon felt a sense of ease and relief and considered himself at liberty to study purely pagan literature such as the of but on this special saturday he was not destined to enjoy complete mrs had sent an urgent appeal to him to kindly step up to the in the afternoon and mrs s husband a large simple faced old fellow in a brown jacket and had himself come with the message and having delivered it stood on s threshold cap in hand waiting for a reply john surveyed his awkward peasant like figure with a sense of helplessness excuses and explanations he knew would be utterly lost on an almost deaf man to fate he nodded his head vigorously and spoke as loudly as he judged needful all right say i ll come i god s good man what i told her sir answered in a remarkably gentle tone it s a bit but if she her no arm can no matter if it s all the riches of the john felt more helpless than ever what was the man talking about he drew closer and spoke in a more emphatic key look here i tell your wife come after luncheon do you hear af ter put one hand to his ear and smiled sir i quite with ye but women are a bit like and of course there s a deal to do and she got frightened with the keys and when she saw them fine clothes and what not so i her a glass of an i now old i don t into fits i ll fetch the to ye and with that she seemed easier in her mind lord love ye i it s a great thing to fetch the at once when there s anything a bit wrong so if you d step up sir driven almost to despair put his lips close to the old man s obstinate ear yes ter yes his reply at last penetrated the closed doors of s brain thank you kindly sir i m sure he said still in the same meek and quiet tone and if i might make so bold sir	33
there s likely to be changes up at the if it should be needful to speak for me and my old p you d be so good sir we wouldn t like to leave the old place now his soft hesitating voice faltered and he suddenly brushed his hand across his poor dim eyes the pathos of this hint was not lost on who forgetting all his own momentary irritation rose to the occasion and roared down the old man s ears like one of the far f of don t worry he his face becoming rapidly crimson with his efforts i ll see you all right i you sha n t leave the if i can prevent it i ll speak for you i cheer up i do you hear er up i heard very clearly this time and smiled thank you i god bless you i m sure help us if so be the lady is a hard one he trusted himself to say no more but with a brief respectful salutation put on his cap and turned away left alone drew a long breath and wiped his brow god s good man to make poor old hear was a powerful muscular exertion had been so much astonished at the loud pitch of his master s voice that he had retired under a sofa in alarm and only crawled out now as departed with small anxious of his tail patted the animal s head and laughed mind you don t get deaf in your old age he said i a little more shouting like that and i should be unable to preach to morrow i still patting the dog s head his eyes gradually darkened and his brow became clouded poor i he murmured help him if so be the lady is a hard one already in fear of her i i expect they have heard something some ill report probably only too correctly founded yet how it goes against the grain of manhood to that any lady may be a hard one i but alas what a multitude of hard ones there are harder than men perhaps if all the truth were known i and there was a certain and rooted aversion in him to that dim approaching presence of the unknown of s he experienced an instinctive dislike of her and was positively certain that the vague would into actual one cannot possibly like everybody he argued within himself in of what he felt was an unreasonable mental attitude and modem fashionable women are among the most of all human creatures any one of them in such a village as this would be out of place thus persuaded his mood was a singular mixture of pity and resentment when in fulfilment of his promise he walked that afternoon up the winding road which led to the and avoiding the lodge gates passed through a rustic he knew well and so along a path across meadows and through to the house the path was guarded by a board marked private will be but in all the years he had lived at st rest he cared nothing for that as of the parish he had his little privileges trotted at his heels with the air of a dog accustomed to very familiar surroundings the grass on either side was springing up long and green delicate little field flowers were peeping through it here and there and every now and then there floated upwards the strong sweet incense of the young wild the way he had chosen to walk god s good man wa known as a short cut to s and ten minutes of easy brought him into the of a thicket of dark at the end of which round a sharp turn the fine old red brick and of the house came into full view he paused a moment looking somewhat at the picture warmly lit up by the glow of the bright sun a picture which through long of observation had grown very sweet to him it was not every day that such a house as s came within reach of the and the beautiful roof the picturesque and of the lines of the whole building so different to the smooth hard of half work common in these days were a delight to the eyes to rest upon a wealth of ivy clung thickly to the walls and round the quaint old chimneys some white clustered in a group on the summit of one broad oak were spreading their snowy wings to the warm sun and discussing their domestic concerns in melodious the windows some of which in their antiquity of horn panes were a particular feature of the house were all thrown open but to s sensitive observation there seemed a different atmosphere about the place a suggestion of change and oc which was almost startling he paced slowly on and arrived at the outside gate which led into a square old fashioned court such as was common to times paved on three sides and planted with formal beds of flowers the whole surrounded by an ancient wall the gate was and pushing it open he passed in glancing for a moment at the grey weather beaten sun dial in the middle of the court which told him it was three o clock for four centuries at least that self same dial had marked the hour in that self same spot a silent on the of human existence as compared with its own strange the sound of s footsteps on the old stones awoke faint echoes and startled away a robin from a spray of rose and as he walked up to the great porch of entrance a porch heavily carved with the or and as deep and wide in its interior as a small room an odd sense came over	33
him that he was no longer an accustomed visitor to a beautiful show house so much as a kind of on forbidden ground the thick nail studded doors huge and wide open no servant was on god s good man the threshold to bid him enter and for a moment he hesitated uncertain whether to ring the bell or to turn back and go away when suddenly mrs emerged from a shadowy comer leading to the and hailed his appearance with an exclamation of evident relief thank the lord and his goodness here you are at i d made up my mind the silly fool of a had brought me the wrong message a good man but weak in the upper where trees is concerned and clearing away when i d be bold to say he s as handy as they make em but do for mercy s sake step inside and see how we ve got on for it s not so bad as it might have been an i ve seen worse done at a few days notice than even myself with hired hands on a ever do step in sir step in we re the door open to let the sun in a bit to warm the hall for the old stained glass do but it through at its best not but that we ain t had a fire in it night and ever since we had miss s letter made no attempt to stem the flow of the worthy woman s discourse from old experience he knew that to be an impossible task so he stepped in as he was and looked round the grand old hall decorated with ancient and worn feeling that perhaps he was looking at it so for the last time no one more than he had appreciated the simple dignity of its old world style or had more correctly estimated the value of the antique oak that covered its walls he loved the great nook set deep back as it were in the very bosom of the house with its high and carved benches on each side and its massive wrought in black oak picked out with gold crimson and he appreciated every small gleam and narrow shaft of colour reflected by the strong sun through the panes of glass that filled the lofty windows on either side and the stuffed knight in a model figure clad in complete steel of the century which stood holding a spear in its hand near the doorway leading to the various reception rooms was almost a personal friend mrs happily unconscious of the deepening melancholy which had begun to tinge his thoughts led the way through the hall still we ve cleaned up wonderfully and it was just the lord s providence that at i found a decent god s good man butler and footman what had got the sack from sir s and were for a place ry preferring london later so i persuaded both of em to come and try service with a lady for once instead of with a old ancient who turns red and blue in the face if he s kept a second and i picked up with a what the footman was engaged to and that ll keep him a and i found the butler had a hi on a young woman at the public house ere so that s what you may call an and then i got two more which was goin off to see about mrs s place and when i told em that there the sugar was weighed out and the tea by the as if it was and that please the lord and anybody else that likes they d have better if they came along with me they struck a bar gain there and then and then as if there was a special powerful on it all who should come down high street but one of the best as ever took a job a scotch body worth her weight in gold and she d be a pretty big parcel to weigh too but she can send up a dinner for one as easy as for thirty which is as good a test as a and as got all her wits about her she was just goin to for a house party or job so we went into the crown inn at and had tea together and settled it and they all come up in a together as merry as so the place is quite lively i do assure you specially for a woman like me which have had it all to myself and like for many years i ve made useful too and can t begin their too early and all has been going on fine not but what there s a mighty sight of and now but it s the lord s will that human bein s should feed even as the pigs do specially domestic servants and there s no of it nor but this s business did put me out a bit and i do assure you i haven t got over it yet but says do yer and i m a it to the best of my belief and still it do make my mind a bit silently followed her through the rooms saying in response to her remarks or otherwise and noting all the various changes as he went in the dining room there was a great the fine old leather chairs were all released from their brown the long concealed were again and disclosed to the light of day valuable that had been turned to the wall to save god s good man their colour from the too absorbing sunshine were now restored to their proper positions and portraits by and by gave quite a stately air of occupation	33
to a room which being large and lofty had always seemed to the in the house for lack of a living presence he trod in the restless wake of mrs however without comment other than a word of praise such as she expected for the general result of her labours in getting the long residence into condition and was only moved to something like enthusiasm when he reached what was called the morning room an apartment originally intended to serve as a for that beautiful mrs the bride who never came home here all the furniture was of the design here rich cushions of silk and satin were piled on the luxurious and in the deep easy chairs curtains of cream embroidered by hand with of roses draped the sides of the deep window nook whence two wide doors opened to a smooth terrace bordered with flowers where two were busy rolling the rich turf and beyond it stretched a great lawn shaded with ancient oaks and elms that must have seen the days of henry vn the prospect was fair and soothing to the eyes and gazing at it gave a little involuntary sigh of pleasure this is beautiful i he said speaking more to himself than to anyone perfectly beautiful i it is so sir agreed mrs with an air of comfortably placid conviction there s no doubt about it it s as beautiful a room as could be made for a queen though i say it but whether our new lady will like it is quite another question you see sir this room was always kept locked in squire s time and so was all the other rooms as was got ready for the wife as never lived to use them the squire wouldn t let a soul inside the doors not even his daughter and now sir will you please read the letter i got this morning which as you wiu notice is quite nice like and kindly more than the other when the boxes came i was a bit upset you see the letter was and had the keys inside it all right took the in reluctant silence the same thick with crushed the same bold dashing handwriting he had seen before but the matter expressed in it was somehow in a totally different tone to that of the previous letter from the same hand god s good man dear mrs it ran i the keys of my boxes which i am sending in advance as i never travel with luggage kindly all the contents and arrange them in the and i of my mother s rooms if i remember rightly these rooms have never been used but i intend to take them for myself now so please have everything prepared i have received your letter in which you say there is some difficulty in getting good servants at so a notice i quite understand this and am sure you will arrange for the best should everything not be quite satisfactory we can make alterations when i come i expect to arrive home in time for afternoon tea folded up the letter and gave it back to its owner well so far you have nothing to complain of mrs he said with a little smile the lady is evidently prepared to excuse any arising from the hurry of your preparations yes sir that may be answered mrs but if so be you saw what ive seen you t take it so easily now sir if you ll follow me you ll be able to judge of the we was in till we got our senses back beginning to be vaguely amused and declining to as to the which according to the good woman had resulted in a species of followed as he was told and slowly ascended the broad staircase one of the finest specimens of work in all england with its richly turned and carved but as he reached the upper landing he halted abruptly seeing through an open door mysterious of and to which he was entirely what room is that he that s what we used to call the bride s room sir replied mrs down her black skirts with an air of importance and heaving a sigh miss s mother was to have had it don t be afraid to step inside s been turned out and and there s not a speck of damp or anywhere and you ll see for what a time we re though we re a bit straight now and i ve ad as is with her pencil to mark things down as they come to and step inside do step inside but held back by some instinctive declined to move further than the threshold of this hitherto god s good man closed and guarded chamber leaning against the doorway he looked in with a vague feeling of bewilderment while mrs trotting busily ahead gave instructions to a fresh faced country who breathing very hard as though she were running was carefully shaking out what seemed to be a fairy s robe of white lace glistening with i ye see this is what all my trouble s about she said fancy to all these grand clothes and sort em as they comes not whether they t fall to bits in our some of em bein fine as an such body linen as was never made for any mortal woman in st best all lace an silk an little when the trunks arrived an we got em into the all i felt that faint i do assure ye for me to ave to an open em and take out all the things inside ah it s an there s jewels packed among the dresses quite an an and we ve taken a lar invent ry of them all lest might be for the lord he	33
only knows whether there might not be fifty thousand pounds of in one of them little boxes all velvet and satin made just as if they was only when ye looks inside ye sees a stone at ye and ye know it s a fortune i do assure ye i ve never seen such things in all my life i miss must be mortal extravagant for there s enough in one o them boxes to feed the whole village of st for several years ah i do assure ye thought of many a time this whose let it be the of a meek and quiet spirit which is a and no mistake i made no remark it never even occurred to him just then that mrs was unconsciously rendering in her own particular fashion the text he had chosen for the next day s sermon never in all his life before had he experienced such strongly mingled sensations of and interest as at that moment with a kind of inward indignation he asked himself what business he had to be there looking curiously into a woman s room with all the and expensive of a woman s apparel above all why should he be so utterly ridiculous and in his own mind as to find himself deeply fascinated by such a spectacle in all the years he had passed with his sister so long as she had lived he had never seen such a bewildering disorder of god s good man nine clothes he had never had the opportunity of noting the pathetic difference existing between the surroundings of a woman who is strong and well and of one who is deprived of all natural by the cruel of long sickness and disease his sister beautiful even in her physical affliction had always borne that affliction more or less in mind and had attired herself with a severely simple taste her bedroom where she had had to pass so many weary hours of suffering had been a model of almost like simplicity and her dressing table was wont to be far more conspicuous for melancholy little medicine than for flashing silver cut glass bottles the then since her death had lived so entirely alone that the pretty of bright and women were quite to him the present glittering display of openly expressed seemed curiously new and vaguely alarming he was angry with it yet in a manner attracted he found himself considering with a curious uneasiness two small pink objects that were lying on the floor at some distance from each other at a first glance they appeared to be very choice examples of that charming known as the but on closer examination it was evident they were merely fashionable evening shoes again and again he turned his eyes away from them and again and again his glance involuntarily wandered back and rested on their helpless looking little pointed toes and high heels considered from a purely point of view they were the most wicked the most criminal the most absolutely unheard of shoes ever seen why no human feet of the proper size could possibly get into them unless they were squeezed yes squeezed i repeated inwardly with a sense of unreasonable irritation all the toes cramped and the heels pinched everything out of joint and distorted false feet in fact like everything else false that has to do with the modem fashionable woman i there they lay apparently innocent but surely detestable nay even objects he determined he would have them removed picked up cast out thrust into the nearest drawer anywhere in fact provided they were out of his stem sight mrs was continuing conversation in brisk tones but whether she was addressing him or the young woman who under her directions was shaking out or folding up the various garments taken out of the various god s good man boxes he did not know and as a matter of fact lie did not care she sounded like s brook with a men may come and men may go but i go on for ever that was as as it was incessant he determined to interrupt the stream mrs he began then hesitated as she turned briskly towards him looking like a human clothes with both fat arms extended in order to keep well away from contact with the floor a robe sparkling all over with tiny drops which catching the flashed like little points of flame your pardon did you speak yes i think you should not let anything lie about as for example those and he pointed to the objectionable shoes with an odd sense of discomfiture they appear to be of a delicate colour and might easily get soiled mrs peered round over the sparkling substance she held looking like a very ancient and red faced peeping over the rim of a cloud well i never she exclaimed what a hi you have i what a hi now them shoes missed me altogether they must have dropped out of some of the dresses we ve been for the s quite reckless like and ain t never been done by no trained maid all like into the boxes anyhow as if the person what had done it was in a mortal temper or hurry lord i don t i know how people things in when they s in a rage ah i wait till i get rid of all these and she to the deep oak wardrobe hich stood open and carefully hung the glittering garment up by its two on two then turned round with a sigh it s what the world s coming to fancy all on to a gown i wouldn t let my in ere for any amount of money she d be that restless and and the like for and the mortal mischief it	33
i know my way i he sprang down the broad stairs as lightly as a boy leaving mrs at the summit looking wistfully after him it s a pity he couldn t stay she murmured there s a lace which must be worth a fortune i d have liked im to see it but was beyond recall on reaching the bottom of the staircase he had turned into the picture gallery a long lofty room with oak on both sides and hung with choice the work of the best masters three or four e peter and being among the most notable examples at one end of the gallery a close curtain of dark green covered a picture which was understood to be the portrait of the mrs who had never lived to see her intended home the late squire had himself put up that curtain and no one had ever dared to lift it mrs had often been asked to do so but she invariably refused not to be troubled with of the old squire as she frankly explained facing this at the opposite end hung another picture disclosed in all its warm and brilliant colouring to the light of day the picture of mary de who in the time of charles the second had been a noted beauty of the merry monarch s reign and whose mrs had the lady in the vi let velvet john had suddenly taken a fancy to look at this portrait though for ten years he had known it well he walked up to it now slowly studying it as the light fell on its rich colouring the painted lady had a wonderfully attractive face the face of a child smiling and her eyes were blue with a moonlight of grey between the black pupil and the her mouth a trifle large but in the centre and curved in the s bow line suggested sweetness and passion and her hair but surely her hair was indescribable the painter of charles the second s time had apparently found god s good man it difficult to deal with for there was a warm brown wave there a tiny ripple behind the small ear and a flash of golden curls over the white brow suggestive of all the tints of spring and autumn sunshine in a riding dress of velvet the colour of a purple mary held her skirt white gloves and riding whip in one hand her hat a three piece of lay ready for wear on a garden seat hard by a blush was fastened carelessly in her close fitting which was turned back with embroidered gold and over her head great forest trees heavy with foliage met in an arch of green john stood for a quiet three minutes studying the picture intently and also the mary de bom may st wedded her cousin de june th died may th not a very long life he mused all the or have died somewhat early he let his eyes rest again on the portrait mary i wonder if her is anything like her slowly turning he went out of the picture gallery across the hall and into the garden where the faithful was waiting for him amid a company of who were busy picking up what they fancied from the path and who were utterly by the constant of the s rough tail and he walked somewhat through the old paved court past the sun dial and out through the great gates which were guarded on either side by stone in their worn decorated with of the old clasped these beasts in a dainty embrace winding little of delicate green over their curved claws and their savage looking heads with large star like flowers of white and pale and against one of the weather beaten an early red rose leaned its head in blushing crimson confidence halting a moment in his onward pace paused and looked back at the scene dear old place i he said half aloud many and many a happy hour have i passed in it loving it it its every stone as all such relics of a and gracious past deserve to be loved and honoured but i fear i fear i shall never again see it god s good man quite as i have seen it for the past ten years or as i see it now i new days new ways i and i am not to me the old days and old ways are best i vi a blessing of god almighty ihe the son and the holy ghost be amongst you and remain with you always i so prayed john truly and tenderly stretching out his hands in over the bent heads of his little which responded with a fervent amen service was over and the good folks of st rest their gradual way out of church to the full sweet sound of an organ voluntary played by miss who as all the said of her was a rare and at the music proper each man and woman wore their sunday best each girl had some extra bit of finery on and each lad either a or wore a flower in his as a testimony to the general feeling inspired by a day when ordinary work is set aside for the pleasures of prayer meditation and love making the who would do away with the appointed seventh day of from the hard labours of every day life deserve hanging without the mercy of trial a due of sunday and especially the english country of sunday is one of the saving graces of our national constitution in the large towns a growing concerning the keeping of the seventh day holy is plainly noticeable the example of london smart society doing much to lessen the old feeling of re for the day and	33
pulpit and his subsequent retreat round by the back of the churchyard into the privacy of his own garden the tongues of tlie restrained as long as their minister was likely to be within broke loose and began to wag with rapidity look ee ere said one short thick set man addressing look ee ere thy to mark this i seemed as if he couldn t find the ways nor the s o the lord slowly removed his cap his head and looked thoughtfully into the as though seeking for inspiration there before replying the short thick set man was an important personage no less than the proprietor of the mother public house and not only was he proprietor of the said public house but of the ale he sold there was a man to be reckoned with and he expected to be treated with almost as much consideration as the himself wore a very ill fitting black suit on sundays which made him look like a cross between a waiter and an and he also supported on his a very tall top hat with an extra wide brim suggesting in its shape a former close acquaintance with cast off clothing stores he himself emphatically he was fair and dazed with his meek and quiet i who wants the like o that in this ere mortal where we all to fight from the moment we lays in our till the last kick we gives fore we goes to our j meek and quiet goes to prison more often than rough and ready was of suggested vith a slight twinkle in his eye and ow m we d b st be all of us meek and quiet when he s by it might be so mr s a rare one to guess as ow the wind blows nor nor east sometimes in the village for all that it s a warm day and the peas on beautiful eh now mr this with a air for had a little reckoning at the mother and desired to be all that was agreeable to its proprietor a defiant indeed he ejaculated meek an quiet suits him down to the ground it do there s a man s likely to have a kindly note of from my best fist god s good man if he comes round my place too often ave ye card as ow he s the five sisters now don t go for to say that i gently e runs as near the wind as he can but e d never be mad enough to chalk the five sisters i chalk em e returned putting quite a strong where he generally left it out and down they re on wednesday which i day to adam frost ere if the five sisters is to lay low what next ay ay several other villagers who had been listening eagerly to the conversation you say true mr you say gospel true if the five sisters lay low what next and dismal of the head and of the eyes from all parties followed this proposition what next echoed the adam frost who on hearing his name brought into the argument showed himself at once ready to respond to it why next we ll not have a tree of any size anywhere near the village for if timber s to be sold sold it will be and the only person we ll be able to rely on for a bit of green shade or shelter will be who wouldn t have a tree cut down anywhere on his land no not if he was starving ah i if the old squire were alive he d sooner have had his own off than the five sisters laid low i by this time a considerable number of the villagers had gathered round as the centre of the discussion some out of curiosity and others out of a vague and entirely idea that perhaps if they took the proper side of the argument in the way of draughts of ale at the mother between church hours might be offered as an end to the conversation should tell miss about it she s coming home to the on tuesday suggested the of the mother a smart looking young woman who was however looked upon with grave suspicion by her feminine neighbours because she dressed beyond her station p she d do something not she said frost she s a fine lady been with what v ill eat for breakfast in order to write about it to the papers them sort of women takes no count o trees except to make money out of em god s good man here there was a slight stir among the group as they saw a familiar figure slowly approaching them that of a yery old man wearing a particularly clean frock and a large straw hat who came out from under the church porch like a quaint moving dutch picture shuffling along one halting step at a time and supporting himself on a stout ash stick this venerable personage made his way with a singular and determination of movement up to the group of arriving among them he took off his straw hat and producing a blue spotted handkerchief from its interior wiped the top of his bald head vigorously now what are ye at he said slowly what are ye at all together like in a load of hay what s the mischief whose character are ye bits out of like in an old cheese eh lord i lord years o wi ye summer in and summer out don t improve ye talk to ye as i will and as i may ye re all as mis able as ever ye was and never a saint among ye the one in the here pausing for breath the ancient speaker wiped his head again carefully	33
down with the action a few stray of thin white hair while a smile of tranquil and superior wisdom spread itself among the countless wrinkles of his face like a ray of winter sunshine awakening rippling reflections on a half frozen pool we ain t said almost timidly not we ain t added we be as as put in adam frost with a sly chuckle and we ain t no match for ain t you looking well mr ejaculated the dressed just wonderful for your time of life my time o life and surveyed the young woman with an expression of disdain well it s a time o life you ll never reach sane or sound my take my word for tl fine feathers makes fine birds but the life is more n the meat and the body more n and as for as and no match for ye may be all that and more which is no sort of and when i what mischief are ye all up to i it and a and a i ll ave or i ll reckon to know the reason why the men and women glanced at each other it was god s good man unnecessary and it would certainly be to old considering his great age and various we was jest a a word or two about the five sisters began adam frost ay ay i said that ye may do and no arm come of it i knows em well i five of the finest trees in all england ay i th squire was main proud of em they be down said s chalk mark s on em for wednesday down i echoed down n with ye all for a parcel o silly wi neither rhyme nor reason nor down why ye might as well tell me the house was bein turned into a cow shed down n i it s true said adam frost beginning make his way towards the gate of the churchyard for he had just one of his numerous olive branches him home to dinner and he knew by stern experience what it meant if mrs frost and the family were kept waiting for the sunday s meal it s true and you ll find it so and whether it ll be any good to the new lady who s home on tuesday or whether the five sisters won t be all afore she comes there s no the lord he gave the trees but whether the lord he gave to take em away again after a matter of three or four hundred year is mighty doubtful old looked the five sisters down he repeated may you never live to do my adam frost if it s true and that s the worst wish i can give ye but adam frost here obeyed the call of his domestic and hurried away without response leaned on his stick thoughtfully for a minute and then resumed his slow shuffling way any one of the men or women near him would have willingly given him a hand to assist his steps but they all knew that he would be highly if they dared to show that they considered him in any way feeble or in need of support so they contented themselves with accompanying him at his own s pace and at such a distance as to be within hearing of any remarks he might let fall without too closely on the special area in which he chose to stump along god s good man the sisters down and the old squire s daughter he muttered they two things is like and water make em mix the squire s daughter ay ay it seems but only day the squire died and she was a fine mare that threw him too was her name ay it seems but day but day d ye mind the squire s daughter f asked one of the village women a little nearer to him mind her and halted abruptly do i mind my own it seems but day i tell ye that the squire died but it s a matter of six an twenty ear since e came to me where i was a in is fields and he out to me the nurse was up and down near the edge of the pasture his baby all in long clothes see that i he an is eyes were all wild like an is lips was a that little white thing is all i ve got left of the wife i was ome to be the sunshine of the old i felt like that child when it was born because its into this killed its mother that was an thing he there was no god in it only a devil and is lips trembled more n ever no woman ought to die in birth to a child it s wicked an cruel i would say that to god himself if i knew him an he clenched is fist ard an then e went on but though i wanted to kill the little creature i couldn t do it i couldn t i it s eyes were like those of my dearest so i let it live an i ll do my best by it yes them s the words e said i ll do my best by it here broke off in his narrative arid resumed his crawling pace you ain t finished ave ye said drawing closer to the old man it s powerful all this ere halted again powerful o course it is there ain t nobody s story ain t if ye knows it an it s all six an twenty year now but i can see th squire still an the nurse slow up an down by the border of the field the baby to sleep	33
and twas a good sound baby too an fine an fore we knew where we was of a baby there was a little wild all over the place trees up hay god s good man an up to all sorts of mischief lord lord i and began to chuckle with a kind of inward merriment i ll never forget the day that child sat down on a nest an got all er little legs stung she was about five ear old then an she never cried not she i the little proud that she was she stamped er of a foot an she she did god make lie an er nurse to er yes o course god made em then i don t think much of him i she lord lord i we ed nigh to split ourselves that we was all ay an th squire was wi us for fun like i don t think much o god father i miss up to im an up all er an the little legs ye ever seed nurse he made the i he ee ee i a slow smile was reflected on the faces of the persons who heard this story a smile that implied lurking doubt as to whether it was quite the correct or respectful thing to find entertainment in an anecdote which included a description of the little legs of the lady of the whose return to her native home was so soon expected but was a privileged personage and he might say what others dared not as philosopher general and of copy book he was looked upon in the village as the of the community and in all or was referred to as final and judge bom in st best he had never been out of it except on an occasional to in the s cart he had married a of the village who had been his in childhood and who after giving him four children had died when she was forty the four children had grown up and in their turn had married and died but he like a hardy old tree had still lived on with firm roots well fixed in the soil that had bred him life had now become a series of dream pictures with him representing every episode of his experience his mind was clear and his perception keen he seldom failed to recollect every detail of a circumstance when once the clue was given and the right little cell in his brain was stirred to these qualities he added a stock of good sound common sense with a great of temperament though he could be cynical and even severe when occasion demanded just now however his venerable countenance was radiant his few remaining of white hair in the sun like spun silver his figure in its homely god s good man leaning on the rough ash stick expressed in its very attitude benevolence and good humour and the little legs had evidently up a vision of childish grace and innocence before his eyes which he was loth to let go she was took away the old squire was killed t she asked who was drinking in all the information he could in order to have something to talk about to his master when the opportunity offered itself ay i ay i she was took away replied his smile darkening into a shadow of weariness the squire s neck was broke with every man woman and child knows that about here an then is brother came along im ad married a wife wi millions an t got no children of their own an they took the away with em a little slip of about fifteen then with great big eyes and a lot of bright air don t none of ye remember er mr shook his head twas afore my time he said i ain t had the mother more n eight years i seed er once said but once that was when i was for the squire as extra and but i er face then ye never looked at it said with a chuckle or bein made man ye wouldn t ave forgot it it s ears ago an she s a woman she ain t been near the place all this time which shows as ow she don t care about it bein took up with er aunt and the millions an she d got a nice little penny of er own too for the old squire left er all he ad an she was to come into it all when she was of age an now she s past bein of age a woman of six an twenty an er rich uncle s dead they say so i suppose she an the aunt can t work it out together eh dear i well well changes there must be and changes there will be and if the five sisters is a down then there s ill luck for the village an for every man woman and child in it mark my i and he resumed his shaking his head don t say that murmured one of the women with a little shudder you didn t ought to talk about ill luck don t ye know it s to talk about ill luck no i don t know o the sort replied luck there is and ill luck an ye can talk as ye like about one or t other it don t make no difference an there s some god s good man things as comes straight from the lord and there s others what comes straight from the devil an ye ve got to take them as they comes tain t no use on yer knees an on either the lord or the devil s outside of ye	33
an jest as they likes on me i d ye think i don t know when the lord is face behind the clouds peep bo for a bit and lets the devil ave it all is own way an don t i know ow when old is in the thick o the fun a fine time with the poor silly souls o men the lord suddenly comes out o the cloud and he now o this ere get thee behind me i an an then here paused and struck his staff violently into the earth an then there s a noise as of a mighty wind an the angels all falls to an cries i lift up your ye everlasting gates that the king of glory may come in i the various village beside their venerable prophet listened to this outburst with respectful awe he s said in a low tone to the proprietor of the mother it s wonderful there is in im when e gives way to it i was the general term among the of the mother for poetry ay ay replied somewhat as one who bore in mind that he was addressing a i don t myself but speaks fine when he has a mind to there s no doubt of that look ee ere now there s frost to im i and they all turned their eyes on a flying bundle of curls rosy cheeks fat legs and clean that came towards old with another young feminine creature after it crying i hip po ly ta i baby i come back to your dinner but was a person evidently accustomed to have her own way and she ran straight up to as though he were the one choice hero picked out of a world she screamed stretching out a pair of short arms my own and pick f i with an shriek at nothing in particular she caught the edge of the old man s god s good man my she said oo old but i loves a smile and then a laugh went the round of the group they were all accustomed to s paused a minute to allow his small admirer to take firm hold of his garments and patted her little head with his brown wrinkled hand we se goin ain t we he said gently the beautiful smile that made his venerable face so fine and again lighting up his sunken eyes come along little come along i she ain t finished her dinner i proclaimed a long legged girl of about ten who had run after the child being one of her numerous sisters mother said she was to come back straight i s ant go back i declared and me s i old chuckled that s so we he said come along little come along and to the panting sister of the tiny he said you go on my i i ll bring the baby on jest as she is now to my she won t stir more n a fond bird s its little claws into ye for shelter i ll bring er along ome an she ll finish er dinner fine like a real good baby i come along little come along so murmuring the old man and young child went on together and the group of villagers dispersed however paused a moment before turning up the lane which led to the mother you tell he said addressing you tell him as ow the five sisters be for low on wednesday never fear responded i ll tell im if t sunday i d tell im now but it s fair he should ave a bit o peace on the seventh day like the rest of us he ll be fair like when he knows it ay and i shouldn t wonder if he gave a bit of is mind for all that he s so quiet there s a real devil in im the o god keeps down but it s there low in is mind an when is eyes flashes blue like afore a storm the devil looks straight out of im it do now well well said with the dignified air of one closing the discussion devil or no devil you god s good man tell im as ow the five sisters be for low on wednesday good day t ye i good responded and the two parted each to go on their several ways to the mother from whose opened windows the smell of roast beef and which generally composed the sunday meal came in down the little lane almost the delicate perfume of the sweet hedges on either side and the nodding in the grass below to his own on the border of his master s grounds a pretty little dwelling with a roof almost overgrown with just breaking into flower far away from st best the greater world swung on its way the whirl of society politics fashion and like the wheel in a s cage round which the poor little imprisoned animal leaps and turns incessantly in a miserable make believe of forest freedom but to the old gardener who lifted the latch of his gate and went in to the sunday dinner prepared for him by his stout and energetic who was one of the best women in the whole there was only one grave piece of news in the universe worth considering or discussing and that was the low of five sisters never said mrs as she set a steaming in its basin on the table and briskly the ends of the cloth in which it had been boiling never you don t tell me i the five sisters down why what is thinking about himself i reckon responded her husband and his own an malicious art o which consists in the land as if it was a judge s chin to be	33
clean shaved every my won t be just wild m he s heard of it already for he seems main about or other i ve thought im wise like an sensible for a man in the church ain t got much chance of the but he was along to day an about a meek an quiet as if any of us wanted that kind o thing ere why it s all the time if tain t sir it s an if tain t it s an if tain t why it s adam frost an his wife an if tain t frost an his wife why it s you an me old we can get up a breeze as well as any couple was ever in the bonds god s good man of i meek an quiet he have all of ye meek an quiet why he ain t got one of is own wait till he ears of the five sisters down see im then or wait till miss arrives an begins to round with the church nonsense i she won t round with the church said mrs cheerfully sitting down to dinner opposite her husband what fools men are to be sure says she s a fine lady to all sorts of show and gaiety and the like what will she want to do with the church ten to one she never goes inside it you shouldn t bet old woman tain t moral said with a chuckle you ain t got ten to bet we couldn t spare so much if she nothing else she ll the church at ome an christmas that s lord lord the mess they makes when they starts on it an the mischief they works down the ivy up the moss an at the flowers s taken months to grow for all the as if they was cats out for a i tell ye it s been a providence for us ere that ain t got no wife if he ad she d a been at the game long afore now our church would be spoilt with a lot o o weed round it but you mark my miss will be the saint in the coffin at ome wi corn and an vegetable all a and a afore we knows it there ain t no sense o fitness in the feminine i mrs laughed good that s quite true she agreed if there were i shouldn t have made sunday for a man who talks too much to eat it while it s hot keep your tongue in your mouth tom i use it for now an i took the hint and subsided into silent enjoyment of his food only once again he spoke in the course of the meal and that was during the impressive pause between and cheese when he knows as ow the five sisters be s sure to do he said ay responded his wife thoughtfully he s sure to do something what d ye think hell do somewhat anxiously oh you know best tom replied his partner set god s good man ting a flat dutch cheese before him and a of foaming beer there ain t no sense o fitness in me bein a woman i you know best i lowered his eyes as usual his better half had closed the argument vii seldom in the placid course of years had st ever its name or permitted itself to suffer loss of dignity by any undue display of excitement the arrival of john as minister of the parish the re building of the church and the discovery of the which old always called the together with the ceremony by bishop were the only in ten years that had moved it slightly from its normal calm for though of wars and various other and reached it through the medium of the newspapers in the ordinary course it concerned itself not at all with these such matters being removed and apart from its own way of life and conduct it was a little world in itself and had only the interest in any other world save perhaps the world to come which was indeed a very real prospect to most of the villagers their inherited tendency being towards a quaint and simple piety that was as as it was sincere the small congregation to which john preached twice every sunday was composed of as honest men and clean minded women as could be found in all england men and women with straight notions of honour and duty and warm if plain of love truth and family tenderness they had their little human and weaknesses thanks to mother whose children we all are and who sets her various for the best of us but taken on the whole they were peculiarly by the march of progress and notions of doubt as to a god and as to a future state had never clouded their quiet minds had taken them well in hand from the beginning of his and being much of a poet and at heart he had noble among them which be taught in simple yet attractive language with the happiest results the moral and mental attitude of the villagers generally was a philosophic cheerfulness and obedience to the will of god but this did not include a tame submission to tyranny or a passive acceptance of injury inflicted upon them by merely human god s good man loi hence though any disturbance of the daily of their agricultural life and pursuits was quite an exceptional circumstance the news of the low of the five sisters was sufficient cause when once it became generally known for visible signs of trouble in its gravity and importance it almost the advent of the new mistress of the and when on tuesday it was	33
whispered that had himself been to with concerning the murder of the famous trees and that his had been all in vain clouded vows and ominous looks were to be seen at every comer where the men halted on their way to the fields op where the women gathered to gossip in the pauses of their domestic labour himself pacing impatiently to and fro in his garden was for once more disturbed in his mind than he cared to admit when he had been told early on monday morning of the imminent destruction awaiting the ve noble which in their venerable and beauty were one of the many glories of the woods surrounding s he was inclined to set it down to some capricious command issued by the home coming mistress of the estate and in order to satisfy himself whether this was or was not the case he had done what was sorely against his own sense of dignity to do he had gone at once to interview personally on the subject but he had found that individual in the worst of all possible moods for argument having been as he stated passed over by miss that lady had not he said written to inform him of her intended return therefore so he argued it was not his business to be aware of it miss hasn t told me anything and of course i don t know anything he said carelessly standing in his doorway and keeping his hat on in the minister s presence my work is on the land and when timber has to be it s my affair and nobody else s i ve been agent on these estates since the squire s death and i don t want to be taught my duty by any man but surely your duty does not compel you to cut down of the finest old trees in england said hotly they have been famous for centuries in this neighbourhood have you any right to fell them without special orders special orders echoed with a sneer i ve had no special order for ten years at least my trust me to do what i think best and i ve every right to act accordingly the trees will begin to rot in another eighteen months or so god s good man just now they re in good condition and will fetch a fair price you stick to your church parson you know all about that no doubt but don t come preaching to me about the of timber that s my business not yours i flushed and bit his lip his blood grew warm with indignation and he involuntarily clenched his fist but he suppressed his rising wrath with an effort you may as well keep a civil tongue in your head mr it will do you no harm he said quietly i have no wish to interfere with what you conceive to be your particular of duty but i think that before you destroy what can never be replaced you should consult the owner of the trees miss especially as her return is fixed for to morrow as i told you before i know nothing about her return replied i am not supposed to know and whether she s here or away makes no difference to me i know what s to be done and i shall do it s eyes flashed strive as he would he could not disguise his inward contempt for this petty jack in office and his keen glance was to the perverse nature of the ill he addressed like the lash of a whip on the back of a cur i know what s to be done and i shall do it repeated in a louder tone and all the sentimental rot ever talked in the village about the five sisters won t make me change my mind no nor all the sermons on meek and quiet spirits neither that s my last word mr and you may take it for what it is worth i swung round on his heel and went his way without replying outwardly he was calm enough but inwardly he was in a white heat of anger his thoughts dwelt with a passionate on the grand old trees with their great of foliage where hundreds of happy birds made their homes where with every spring the tender young leaves forth from the aged boughs expressing the joy of a life that had whole generations of men where in the long of summer broad stretches of shade lay dense on the soft grass offering grateful shelter from the noon day sun to the cattle and where with the autumn s breath the slow and glorious of green leaves to gold with of scarlet between made a splendour of colour against the pale grey blue sky such as artists dream of and with difficulty all this wealth of god granted natural beauty the growth of centuries was to in a god s good man single morning surely it was a crime i surely it was a wicked and wanton deed for there could be no sane excuse offered i sorrowfully and with bitterness did relate to his gardener the failure of his attempt to bring to reason solemnly and in subdued silence did hear the tale well well he said when his master had finished you your best for us and no man can t say but what youve done it true ever since you took up with this ere village and you ve tried to save the five sisters and if tain t no use why there s no more to be said was for up to the an miss herself as soon as she gets within her own door but lord love ye he d take a day to up	33
or ever would behind such bewildering brief flashes of light which appeared to shine forth without meaning and vanish again without result and in various ways he now began to think he must certainly have grown selfish his irritation at the return of miss proved it he determined to brace himself together and put the lurking devil of down put it down he said inwardly and with put it down it under foot john my boy the lady of the is perhaps sent here to try your patience and prove the stuff that is in you she is no child she is twenty seven years of age a full grown woman she will have her ways just as you have yours she will probably rub every mental io god s good man and moral hair on the skin of your but that is really just what you want john you do indeed you want something more than sir s to keep you clean of an or an of your powers of endurance are about to be put to the test and you must come out strong john you must not allow yourself to become a old because you cannot always do exactly as you like he smiled at his own mental scolding of himself and addressing once more said i shall probably write a note to miss this afternoon and send you up with it i shall tell her all about the five sisters and ask her to give orders that the cutting down of the trees may be delayed till she has seen them for herself but don t say anything about this in the village here he paused a moment and then spoke with greater emphasis i don t want to interfere with anything anybody else may have on hand do you understand we must save the old somehow i wiu do my best but i may fail miss may not read my letter or if she does she may not be disposed to attend to it it is best that all ways and means should bo tried he broke off but his eyes met p in a mutual flash of understanding you re a straight man and no mistake observed with a slow smile no about the bush in the likes o you lord lord what a we ain t with a poor man o god like we ad afore you come ere what found all is an pleasure in with sir up at the all and when there was a man died or a baby bom or some other like calamity in the village he t never to and to but he would give a look in when it was au over and then he he i m sorry my man i wasn t ere to comfort ye but i was up at the au and he did roll it round and round in his mouth like as twas a lump o butter and up at the all it must a tasted sweet to im as we used to say and into consideration that sir was a bone by profession we used to throw up the proverb the nearer the bone the sweeter the meat not that it had any on the matter but a good s a good thing and a proverb fits into a fancy sometimes better n a foot into a shoe but you ain t a and you ain t never been up at the all nor wouldn t go if you was to god s good man and that s one of the many things what makes you a favourite it do now i smiled but to continue conversation on this somewhat personal theme he retired into his own study there to the most and most formal note to miss that he could possibly devise he had the very greatest reluctance to attempt such a task and sat with a sheet of before him for some time staring at it without any commencement then he began the john presents his compliments to miss and inform her no that would never do i to inform her sounded almost threatening the rev john might beg to inform her that she had no business to wear pink shoes with high heels for example he destroyed one half sheet of paper put the other aside to serve as a stray for church and commenced in a different strain dear madam dear madam i he looked at the two words in some annoyance they were very ugly addressed to a person who wore pink shoes they seemed singularly abrupt and if miss should chance to resemble in the least her mary de they were wholly a might write dear madam to a customer in application for an bill but to mary one would surely begin ah now how would one begin he paused biting the end of his another half sheet of was wasted and equally another half sheet devoted to church then he began dear miss at this he threw down his i en altogether too familiar by all the gods of greece whom he had almost believed in even while studying divinity at oxford a great deal too familiar it is just as if i knew her he said to himself in vexation and i don t know her and what s more i don t want to know her i if it were not for this business of the five sisters i wouldn t go near her positively i wouldn t a mellow from the old eight day clock in the outer hall struck on the silence three o clock i the train by which miss would arrive was timed to reach station at three if it was not late which it generally was who had been peacefully near	33
the study window in a patch of sunlight suddenly rose shook himself and io god s good man trotted out on to the lawn the air with ears and tail erect watched him perhaps he a future enemy in miss s dog i and this idea made him smile he is quite intelligent enough he is certainly more intelligent than i am this afternoon for i cannot write even a commonplace ordinary note to a commonplace ordinary woman here a sly brain devil whispered that miss might possibly be neither commonplace nor ordinary but he put the suggestion aside with a get thee behind me satan the fact is i had better not write to her at all send with a verbal message he is sure to give a quaint and pleasant turn to it he knew her father and i didn t it will be much better to send having made this resolve his brow cleared and he was more satisfied tearing up the last half sheet of wasted he had spoilt in futile attempts to address the lady of the he laughed at his failures even if it were etiquette to use the old form of correspondence which some people think ought to be revived it wouldn t do in this case he said imagine it john to greeting how how ridiculous it would look i he shut all his writing materials in his desk and following out to the lawn seated himself with a volume of in his hand he was soon absorbed yet every now and again his thoughts strayed to the five sisters and with persistent fidelity of detail his mind s eye showed him the grassy so soft to the tread where the doomed trees stood proudly and gracefully clad just at this season all in a glorious of young green where as the poet whose tender word he was reading might have said of the surroundings for moisture of sweet showers all the grass is thick with flowers yes i shall send up to the with a civil message he mused and he can and certainly will add anything else to it he likes of course the lady may be offended some women take offence at anything but i don t much care if she is my conscience will not reproach for having warned her of the impending destruction of one of the most picturesque portions of her property but personally i shall not write to her nor will i go to see her i shall have to god s good man log pay a formal call of course in a week or two but i need not go inside the for that to leave my card as minister of the parish will be quite sufficient he turned again to the volume in his hand his eyes fell casually on a verse in the poem of the world is filled with folly and and love must cling where it can i say for beauty is easy enough to win but one isn t loved every day he sighed involuntarily then to banish an regret he began to his author if the world and the of service had not stepped in between lord and his muse he would have been a fine poet he said half aloud a pity he was not bom and in poverty he would have been wholly great instead of as now merely greatly gifted he missed his true so many of us do likewise i often wonder whether i have missed mine but this idea no consideration he knew he had not mistaken his calling he was the very man for it many of his cloth might have taken a lesson from him in the whole art of unselfish to the needs of others but with all his high spiritual aim he was essentially human and pleasantly conscious of his own and he did not hold himself as above the weaker brethren but as one with them and of them and through the steady maintenance of this mental attitude he found himself able to in ordinary emotions ordinary interests and ordinary lives with more than the usual sympathy displayed by the ministers of small and in the concerns of the people committed to their charge it is not too much to say that though he was in himself distinctly reserved and apart from the average majority of men the quiet exercise of his influence over the village of st rest had resulted in so and the of love and confidence in all the hearts about him to his own that anything of serious harm to himself would have been considered in the light of real and ruin to the whole community when a clergyman can succeed in establishing such complete trust and sympathy between him r self and his there can be no question of his fitness for the high to which he has been ordained when on the contrary one finds a village or town where the no god s good man inhabitants split up into small and and are more or less in a state of against the minister who should be their ruling head the blame is j more with the minister than with those who dispute his teaching inasmuch as he must hare fallen far below the ex xx standard in some way or other to have thus incurred general if all fails mused presently his ts again to the five sisters question ii does his errand awkwardly if the lady will not see him if any one of the thousand do happen that are quite likely to happen and so spoil all chance of with miss to spare the trees why then i will go myself to morrow morning to the scene of intended before six o clock i will be there before an axe is	33
lifted and if meant anything at all by his hint others will be there too yes i shall go in fact it will be my duty to go in case of a row a smile showed itself under his silver brown moustache the idea of a row seemed not altogether unpleasant to ho stooped and patted his dog i he said with mock solemnity lying at his feet opened one eye it lazily and his tail i think our presence will be needed to morrow morning at an early hour in attendance on the five sisters do you hear me again good that wink expresses understanding we shall have to be there in case of a row yawned stretched out his and closed both eyes in peaceful slumber it was a beautiful afternoon sufficient for the day was the evil thereof according to the john turned over a few more pages of and presently came to the conclusion that he would go the decision was no sooner arrived at than he prepared to carry it out awoke with a start from his to see his master on the move and quickly trotted after him across the lawn to the river here the sole of the shining stream was a maternal swan white as a cloud on the summit of floating in stately ease up and down the water carrying her young brood of on her back under the snowy curve of her wings the and sprang into it following and then himself of his coat he was just about to take the pole in hand when s figure suddenly emerged from the gods good man iii on the wild wave are ye he observed well it s a fine day for it i m you ain t seen the of four rats anywhere around no then i their relations must ha been an ate em up which may be their way of i em all last night in new traps of my own invention the lilies will be all the better for their loss i ll be some more this lord if you was to old out offers of a a head the rats ud be gone in no time an the lilies tool absorbed in getting his out only smiled r nd nodded the train must ha been went on staring at the shining water for once in its life for a one fly goin at a one fly pace as passed through the village and is up to the this very minute i s pose miss s inside it paused pole in hand yes i suppose she is he rejoined come to me at six o clock i shall want you very good the pole in the water the shot out into the clear stream gave two short as was his custom when he found himself being helplessly borne away from dry land and in a few seconds had disappeared round one of the of the river stood for a minute jest a one fly goin at a one fly pace i he repeated slowly it s a cheap way of ome to one s father s jest in a one she might ha ordered a an pair by an dashed it up in fine style but a one it do take the edge off a ome i it do now and with a kind of short at the vanity and disappointment of expectations he went his way to the kitchen garden there to the of sweet and bitter memory over the beds which were in a highly promising condition one horse fly going at a one horse fly pace had made its way with comfortable from to st rest its stout heavy faced driver being altogether unconscious that his fare was no less a personage than miss the lady of the when a small girlish person clad in a plain close fitting garb of navy blue and wearing a simple yet dark straw hat to match him at the railway station with a brief cab please and sprang into his vehicle he was a trifle sulky at being engaged in such a fashion by an apparently insignificant young female who had no luggage not so much as a be you a goin he demanded turning his bull neck slowly round i for a far journey aren t you and the young lady smiled you must drive me to st rest s please i the heavy faced driver paused considering should he perform the journey or should he not perhaps it would be wisest to undertake the job there was the mother at the end of the journey and was a friend of his yes he would take the risk of conveying the humbly clad female up to the he had heard that the old place was once again to be inhabited and that the mistress of it was daily expected this person in the blue was probably one of her messengers or my fare s ten shillings he observed still peering round it s a good seven mile up hill and down all right responded the young woman cheerfully you shall have ten shillings only please begin to go won t you this request was accompanied by an arch smile and a flash of blue eyes from under the dark straw hat brim the was faintly moved to a grin she ain t bad looking neither he muttered to himself and he was in a somewhat better humour when at last he condescended to start his vehicle was a closed one and though god s good man he fully expected his passenger would put her head out of the window when the horse was up hill and entreat him to go faster which habit he had found by experience was customary to woman in	33
was so entirely different to the chill and reserved personage her imagination had depicted that she was quite at a loss how to look or what to say is this the way asked stepping lightly past the stuffed knight in yes i thought it was i begin to remember everything now oh how i wish i had never gone away from this dear old home she entered the morning room guiding mrs rather than being guided by her for as that worthy woman to at supper that self same night i was so all in a tremble and with er on to my arm and me round that i was like the man in the what had dumb devils and scarcely knew what ground my feet was a on the cheerful air of welcome which pervaded this charming sunny apartment with its windows the wide stretch of lawn terrace and park land delighted and she loosened her hold on mrs s arm with a little cry of pleasure as a huge dog rose from his position near the window and came to greet her with slow and of his great tail ii god s good man my beauty she exclaimed how do you like s boy eh quite at home aren t you i good dog i isn t he a king of dogs and she turned her smiling face on mrs a real king i i bought him because he was so big weren t you frightened when you saw such a monster and didn t you think he would bite everybody on the least provocation but he wouldn t you know i he s a perfect darling as gentle as a he would kill anyone that wanted to hurt me oh yes of course that s why i love him and she patted the enormous creature s broad head tenderly he s my only true friend she continued money wouldn t buy his fidelity here glancing at mrs she laughed merrily dear mrs you do look so uncomfortable so so warm it is warm isn t it make me some tea tea one they say though it s hot to drink at first well talk afterwards mrs with hastened to the tea tray and tried to compose her agitated nerves by bringing her attention to bear on the silver tea kettle which had just brought in and in which the water was beginning to in obedience to the newly kindled flame of the beneath meanwhile stepped out on the grass terrace in front of the window with the dog at her side and looked long and earnestly at the fair stretch of scenery before her while she thus stood absorbed mrs stole covert glances at her with increased wonder and bewilderment she looked much younger than her twenty seven years her figure and face her as about eighteen not more she stood rather under than over the medium height of woman yet she gave the impression of being taller than she actually was owing to the graceful curve of her arched neck which rose from her shoulders with a proud marking her as exceptional and altogether different to that of ordinary women her back being turned to mrs for the moment that sagacious dame decided that she was real stately for all that she was small and also noted that her hair loosely in a thick knot which pushed itself with rebellious fulness beyond the close fitting edge of the dark straw hat she wore was of a warm gold rippling here and there into shades of darker brown suddenly with a decided movement she turned from the terrace and re entered the morning room god s good man tea ready she asked yes ma am i yes miss my lady it s just made perhaps it s best to let it draw a bit i don t like it strong i said sitting down and leisurely taking off ber bat and you mustn t call me my lady i m not the daughter of an earl or the wife of a knight if i were scotch i might say i m of or some other of but being english i m of and you must call me miss till i become ma am i don t want to bear any unnecessary before my time in fact i think you d better call me miss as you used to do when my father was alive very well ma am miss miss faltered mrs with the tea things and putting cream and sugar into three or four cups without thinking there i i don t know what i am a of do you like cream and sugar my dear your miss yes i like cream and sugar both replied the young lady with a gleam in her eyes as she noted the old housekeeper s confusion but don t spoil the tea with either if you put too much cream you will make tea cold if you put too much sugar you will make it you must arrive at the in a cup of tea i i am very particular poor mrs grew warmer and in the face than ever what was the often and often afterwards did she puzzle over that remarkable phrase i think continued with a smile if you put one lump of sugar in the cup and two of cream it will be exactly right gladly and with relief mrs obeyed these explicit instructions and handed her new mistress the desired refreshment with and respectful care you are a dear i said lazily taking the cup from her hand just the kindest and of persons and good tempered i am sure you are good tempered aren t you pretty well so miss responded mrs now gaining courage to look at the fair	33
smiling face opposite her own more and openly i ve been told i keeps my under any amount of kitchen for as you may believe me in a kitchen where there s men as well as women an a servants all straight through from the kitchen there is and there must be and such bein the ii god s good man lord s will we must put up with it but it wants a to keep things straight and i generally pretty well though not deny but i m a bit to day it will soon be all right and that s wrong miss if you will be so good as to tell me i will said sweetly and she leaned back in her chair surveying the old dame with eyes which mrs then and there discovered to be the most beautiful blue eyes ever seen i will tell you all i do like and au i don t like i m sure we shall get on well together the tea is perfect and this room is exquisite in fact everything is delightful and i m so happy to be in my own home once more i wish i had never left it i her eyes darkened suddenly and she sighed mrs watched her in silence as she gazed that miss was a real beauty and no mistake why and how she came to that conclusion she could not very well have explained her ideas of feminine loveliness were somewhat and she privately considered her own girl the in all the country side and she had been known to bitterly what she called the pink and white face of the acknowledged young of the village but there was an air of charm about her new lady which was quite foreign to all her experience a bewildering grace and ease of manner arising from high education and social cultivation that confused her and robbed her of all her usual self and for once in her life she checked her customary and decided tliat it was perhaps best to say as little as possible till she saw exactly how things were going to turn out miss was very kind but who could tell whether she was not also capricious there was something slightly as well as sweet in her smile something subtle something almost mysterious she had greeted her father s old servant as affectionately as a child but her enthusiasm might be only temporary so mrs vaguely reflected as she stood with her hands folded on her apron waiting for the next word that next word came with a startling suddenness oh you wicked i how could you i and springing up from her chair made a bound to the opposite comer of the room where there was a tall filled with i feathers gathering all these in her hand she them in the old housekeeper s face gods good man the most unlucky things in the world she exclaimed feathers how could you allow them to be in this room on the very day of my return it s dreadful quite dreadful i you know it nothing is quite so awful as a s feather i mrs stared gasped and her hand involuntarily wandered to her side in search for convenient they ve always been ere miss she stammered i t no as ow you wouldn t like them though to tell the truth i ave card about their bein unlucky i should think so replied holding the objectionable as far away from herself as possible no wonder we ve been unfortunate if these feathers were always in the old house i no wonder everything went wrong i i must break the spell at once and for ever are there more of these horrible witch eyes in any of the rooms poor mrs made a great effort to her memory she was affected by a as she expressed it there was her newly arrived mistress her with the air of a young holding the bunch of glittering aloft like a rod uplifted for summary and asking her to instantly remember whether there were any more horrible witch eyes about mrs had never before heard such a term applied to the of the imperial fowl but she never forgot it and never afterwards saw a s feather without a i couldn t say miss i m not sure she answered but i ll have every and comer searched to morrow no to night said with determination i will not sleep in the house if one s feather remains in it there her brows were bent in another moment she laughed take them away she continued picking up mrs s apron at the comers and all the glittering into its folds take them all away and go right through the house and collect every remaining feather you can find and then and then here she paused you mustn t bum them you know that would be still lor would it now miss i never should ave thought it murmured mrs grasping her of horrible witch eyes what on earth shall i do with them considered very pretty she looked at that moment god s good man with one small finger placed on her lips which were curved close like a folded you must either bury them or drown them she said at last with the decision if you drown them you must tie them to a stone so that they will not float if you bury them you must dig ten feet deep i you must really i if you don t they will all come up again and the eyes will be all over the place haunting you here she broke into the little laugh possible poor i you do look so miserable see here i ll tell you what to do pack	33
them all in a box and i will send them to my aunt she loves them she likes to see them stuck all over the drawing room they re never unlucky to her she has a fellow feeling for there is a sort of between herself and them i pack up every feather you can find i the box must go to night by parcel s post address to mrs at the hotel she s staying there just now will you be sure to send them off to night she held up her little white hand and her blue eyes wonderfully sweet and yet grave and passionate looked straight into the elder woman s wrinkled apple face when she looked at me like that i d a gone to kingdom come for her mrs afterwards declared to some of her village and as for the feathers i d a though the from top to bottom afore i d a let one be in it to she said you may take my word for it miss i they ll all go out of the fore seven o clock i ll send them myself to the post thank you so said with a little sigh of relief and now i will go to my bedroom and lie down for an hour i m just a little tired have you managed to get a maid for me well miss there s jest a she don t know much but she s and and and quick with her needle and tidy at and got a good character she s the best i could do miss her name is send her to you directly yes answered miss with a little and show me to my rooms you prepared the ones i told you my mother s rooms yes miss answered mrs in subdued accents i ve made them all fresh and sweet and clean but of course god s good man the furniture is left jest as it was when the squire locked em all up after he lost his lady said nothing but followed the housekeeper upstairs the great dog in attendance on her steps on reaching the bedroom hung with faded rose silk and furnished with sixteenth century oak she looked at everything with a curious and reverence approaching the dressing table she glanced at her own reflection in the mirror but fair as the reflection was that glanced back at her she gave it no smile she was serious and absorbed and her eyes were clouded with a sudden mist of tears mrs took the opportunity to slip away with her collection of feathers and descended in haste to the kitchen where for some time the various orders she issued caused much domestic and fully expressed the condition of her own mind the maid was off to wait on miss upstairs and don t be clumsy with your whatever you do i the butler was sent to remove the tea things from the morning room at which command he turned round somewhat indignantly asking who are you a of don t you think i know my business unhappily coming by chance to the kitchen door to ask if it was really true that miss had arrived was told to go along and mind his own business and so it happened that when appeared charged with the reverend john s message concerning the five sisters he might as well have tried to obtain an unprepared audience with the king as to see or speak with the lady of the miss had arrived oh yes she had certainly arrived mrs told him with much heat and energy but she was tired and was lying down and certainly could not be asked to see anyone no matter what the business was and to make things more emphatic at the very time that was urging his cause and mrs was firmly it came down from attendance on her mistress and said that miss was going to sleep a little and she did not wish to be disturbed till she rang her bell oh and she s beautiful said drawing a long breath and so very she showed me how to do all she wanted and was that patient and gentle she says i ll make quite a good maid after a bit well i hope to the lord you will said mrs with a for it s a chance in a straight god s good man out of the village to a first situation with a lady like miss and i you ll profit by it and if you t taken the prize for in tiie school you wouldn t ave ad it so now you sees what good it to serve your elders when you re young here she turned to who was standing half in and half out of the kitchen doorway i m real sorry mr that you can t see our lady more specially as you wishes to give a message from himself but you jest go back and tell im ow it is miss is and can t be disturbed his cap nervously in his hand i s pose no one couldn t say to her quiet like as ow the sisters be mrs raised her fat hands with a gesture of dismay lor bless the she exclaimed d ye think we re goin to miss with the likes o that the very first she s set foot in er own why we t i an that there great dog on guard outside er door i ve ad enough to day with feathers let alone the five sisters besides is agent ere and what he says is sure to be done she won t worry about it and you may be pretty certain he won t be interfered with you tell i m real sorry but	33
it can t be turned away he was never much disposed for a discussion with mrs her mind was too and her tongue too i her allusion to feathers was unintelligible to him and he wondered whether she s been an took had gone to her head anyway his errand was for the moment but he was not altogether he determined not to go back to with his message quite where there s a will there s a way i he said to himself i ll go and do a bit of to deaf as he is he s more reasonable like than his old i with this resolve he went his way by a short cut through s gardens to a small shelter in the woods known as the hut where was generally to be found at about sunset smoking a peaceful pipe alone and well out of his wife s way meanwhile lying wide awake on her bed in the long unused room that was to have been her mother s experienced various sensations of mingled pleasure and pain for the first time in her life of full womanhood she was god s good man alone independent free to come or go as she with no one to her wishes or place a check on her she had deliberately thrown off her aunt s protection and with that action had given up the wealth and luxury with which she had been surrounded ever since her father s death for reasons of her own which she considered sufficiently she had also resigned all expectations of being her aunt s she had taken her liberty and was prepared to enjoy it she had professed herself perfectly contented to live on the comparatively small secured to her by her father s will it was quite enough she said for a single woman at any rate she would make it enough and here she was in her own old home the home of her childhood which she was ashamed to think she had well nigh forgotten since her year she had travelled nearly all over the world london paris new york had each in turn been her home under the guidance of her wealthy american relative and in the brilliant of an ov er society she had been caught and whirled like a helpless floating straw mrs as her aunt was familiarly known to the press had spared no pains to secure for her a grand marriage and every possible advantage that could lead to that one point had been offered to her she had been taught that could possibly add to her natural gifts of intelligence she had been dressed exquisitely taken about everywhere and shown off to all the of europe she had been flattered praised admired and generally spoilt and had been proposed to by eligible gentlemen with every season but all in vain she had taken a singular notion into her head an idea which her matter of fact told her was ridiculous she wanted to be loved any man can ask a girl to marry him if he has pluck and impudence she said especially if the girl has money oi expectations of money and is not downright repulsive and ill bred but proposals of marriage don t always mean love i don t care a bit about being married but i do want to be loved really loved i want to be dear to else as sings it not for what i have but for what i am it was this curious old fashioned notion of wanting to be loved that had from her wealthy american it had developed from mere fireside argument and occasional into downright and its present god s good man result was self evident had broken her social and had returned to her own home in a state which for her considered by her past experience was one of genteel poverty but which was also one of glorious independence and as she under the old rose silk which were to have that perished beauty from which she derived lier own she was conscious of a novel and soothing sense of calm the rush and hurry and of society seemed put away and done with through her open window she could hear the rustling of leaves and the singing of birds the room in which she found herself pleased her taste as well as her sentiment and though the faintest shadow of vague wonder crossed her mind as to what she would do with her time now that she had gained her own way and was actually all alone in the heart of the country she did not permit such a thought to trouble her peace the grave tranquillity of the old house was already beginning to exert its influence on her always quick and mind the dear remembrance of her father whom she had and whose sudden death had been the one awful shock of her life came back to her now with a fresh and tender pathos little incidents of her childhood and of its affection such as she thought she had forgotten presented themselves one by one in the faithful of her brain and the more or less feverish and hurried life she had been compelled to lead under her aunt s command and began to itself slowly like a receding coast line from a departing vessel it is home i she said and i have not been in a home for years aunt s houses were never home and this is my home my very own the home of our family for generations i ought to be proud of it and i will be proud of it even aunt used to say that s was a standing proof of the stuck up pride of the fm sure i shall find	33
catch the sound of the sweet voice which suddenly broke out in a careless tu m ch un je k le supreme on n est ce pas ch she s to herself said the breathless whispering to her mother ain t she jest and beautiful well i will own replied mrs she s as different to the lady expected as cheese from chalk which they generally says chalk from cheese that don t matter but if i don t mistake she s got a will of er own for all that she s so and beautiful as you says and now don t you go away with notions that you can dress like er or look like er for when once a of your make thinks she can imitate the fashions and the ways of a great lady she s done for body and soul you ain t goin to wear white gowns and trail em up an down on the grass nor ave big dogs a up an down while you sings in a to no not if you was to read all the story books in the world so you needn t think it for there ain t no you as they in penny novels nor else what s up in newspapers so wear your cotton in peace an don t worry me with god s good man to look like miss for you never won t look like er if ye tried till ye was dead that now i the lord makes a many women but now and again he turns out a few which won t bear miss s one of them and we must take er with prayer and as ix s first solitary dinner in the home of her ancestors passed off with tolerable success she found something not altogether unpleasant in being alone after all wai always an intelligent well behaved and dignified companion in his way and the meal was served by who waited on his new mistress with as much respect and zeal as if she had been a queen a sense of authority and importance began to impress itself upon her as she sat at the head of her own table in her own dining hall with all the and and gazing placidly down upon her from their gilded frames and the of many wax candles in old silver glancing upon the rusty and crossed swords that decorated the of the walls between and above the pictures fancy no gas and no electric light i it is simply charming i she thought and so becoming to one s dress and complexion i only there s nobody to see the but i can soon remedy that lots of people will come down and stay here if i only ask them there s one thing quite certain about society folk they will always come where they can be lodged and free i they call it country visiting but it really means shutting up their houses their servants and generally on their housekeeping bills seen such a lot of it i she heaved a little sigh over these social reminiscences and finished her in meditative silence she had not been accustomed to much thinking and to indulge in it at all for any length of time was actually a novelty her aunt had told her never to think as it made the face serious and developed lines on the forehead and she had under this kind of became one of a brilliant fashionable dress loving crowd of women who spend most of their lives in caring for their and counting their lovers yet every now and again a wave of to such a useless sort of existence arose in her and made a stormy rebellion surely there was god s good man something nobler in life something higher something useful and intelligent than the ways and manners of a physically and morally society it was a still calm evening and the warmth of the sun all day had drawn such from the hearts of the flowers that the air was with perfume when she wandered out again into her garden after dinner and looked up wistfully at the of the set clear against a background of dark blue sky with stars a certain gravity oppressed her there was after all something just a little in the on coming of night in this secluded place where she had voluntarily chosen to dwell all alone and rather than lend herself to her aunt s match making schemes of course she argued with herself i need not stay here if i don t like it i can get a paid companion and go travelling but oh dear i ve had so much travelling or i can own myself in the wrong to aunt and marry that wretch oh no i i could not i i will not she gave an impatient little stamp with her foot and anon surveyed the old house with affectionate eyes you shall be my rescue i she said kissing her hand to the windows you shall turn me into an old fashioned lady fond of making and and preserves and waters i ll put away all the and silly of modem society in one of your quaint and lock them all up with little bags of to them and i will wait for to come and find me out and love me and if no one ever comes here she paused then went on if no one ever comes why then and she laughed some man will have lost a good chance of marrying as true a girl as ever lived a girl who could love ah and she stretched out her pretty rounded arms to the scented air how she could love if she were loved the young moon here put in a	33
shy appearance by showing a of silver above the highest of the a little diamond peak no bigger than an unobserved star or tiny point of fairy bright signal that she only stooped to tie her silver ere she bowed unto the heavens her timid head slowly she rose as though she would have fled god s good man there s no doubt said that this place is romantic and romance is what i ve been searching for all my life and have never found except in books not so much in modem books as in the books that were written by really poetical and imaginative people sixty or seventy years ago nowadays the authors that are most praised go in for what they call and their is very unreal and very nasty for instance this garden these lovely trees this dear old house all these are real but much too romantic for a modem writer he would rather describe a and every in it and here am i i m real enough but i m not a bad woman i haven t got what is called a past and i don t belong to the right down vicious company of souls so i should never do for a heroine of latter day fiction i m afraid i m it s dreadful to be one becomes a like and all the but suppose the world were full of merely normal people people who did nothing but eat and sleep in the most perfectly healthy and regular manner oh what a bore it would be there would be no pictures no no poetry no music no anything worth living for one must have a few ideas beyond food and clothing the moon rose higher and shed a shower of silver over the grass lighting up in strong relief the fair face to it now the souls pretend to have ideas continued still the bland stillness but their ideas are low decidedly low and decidedly queer and that cabinet ministers are in their set doesn t make them any the better i could have been a soul if i had liked i could have learnt a lot of wicked secrets from the married peer who wanted to be my only i wouldn t i could have got all the government tips with them on the stock exchange and made quite a fortune as a soul yet here i am no soul but only a poor little body with something in me that asks for a higher flight than mere social just a bit of a higher flight what do you think about it the waved his tail and gently rubbed his great head against her arm one hand lightly on his neck she moved towards the house and slowly ascended the slopes of tiie grass terrace here she was suddenly met by beg your pardon miss he said with an air god s good man but there s an old man from the village come up to see you very old man he s had to be carried in a chair and it s took a couple of men nigh an hour and a half to bring him along he says he knew you years ago i hardly like to send him away certainly not i of course you mustn t send him away said her steps poor old where is he in the great hall miss they brought him through the and got him in there before i had time to send them round to the back entrance entered the house there she was met by mrs with uplifted hands well it do beat me altogether miss she exclaimed as to how these silly men my too one of the your could bring that poor old up here all this way i and he not beyond the church this seven or eight years and it s all about those blessed five sisters they ve come though i told em you can t be and can t see no one but i can said i can see anyone who wishes to see me and i will let me pass mrs please mrs thus abruptly checked stood meekly aside her desire to pour forth fresh at the of any person or persons upon the lady of the at so late an hour in the evening as nine o clock hastened into the hall and there found an odd group awaiting her composed of three very odd looking personages much more novel and striking in their than anything that could have been presented to her view in the social whirl of paris and london was the central figure seated bolt upright in a cane arm chair through the lower part of which a strong pole had been thrust securely nailed and as well as tied in a somewhat fashion with clothes line this pole projected about two feet on either side of the chair to accommodate the namely and who having set their burden down were now wiping their hot faces and brows with coloured handkerchiefs of an extra large size as they abruptly from this occupation and remained motionless stricken with sudden confusion and embarrassment not so old for with unexpected alacrity he got god s good man out of his chair and stood upright supporting himself on his and his old straw hat to the light girlish figure that approached him with the grace of and sympathy expressed in its every movement there she be he exclaimed there be the little i used to know when she was a god bless er the same eyes and air and face of er welcome ome to th squire s daughter mates d ye ear me and he turned a dim rolling eye of command on and i welcome and when i it i it	33
to be said me by the both of ye welcome ome unable to hear a word of this smiled and the cap he held put his coloured handkerchief into it and squeezed it tightly within the with the impending fate of the five sisters in view judged it advisable not to or the old gentleman whom he had brought forward as special in the case and gathering his wits together he spoke out bravely welcome ome it is i he said we both it and we both means and we the young lady wiu not take it amiss as ow we ve come to see er on the first night of er return and wish er in the old and long may she remain in it here he broke off his eloquence being greatly disturbed by the gracious smile gave him thank you so much she murmured sweetly and then going up to she patted the brown wrinkled hand that grasped the stick how kind and good of you to and see and so you knew me when i was a little girl i hope i was nice to you i was i waved his straw hat his first burst of enthusiasm over he was somewhat dazed and a little uncertain as to how he should next proceed with his mission tell er as ow the five sisters be growled in an but s mind had gone wandering far groping amid memories of the past and his aged eyes were fixed on with a strange look of wonder and remembrance th squire i th squire he muttered i see im now as broad an tall and well set up a gentleman as ever lived and he that little white thing is all got left of the wife i was ome to be the sunshine of the old ay he said that its eyes god s good man are like those of my dearest ay he said that too i the little white thing she s ere and th squire s gone the pathos of his voice struck to the heart and for the moment she could not keep back a few tears that gathered despite herself and on her long lashes she dashed them away but not before had seen them well all s but a old he thought angrily ere ave i been an took im for a wise man would know ow to begin and ask for the of the old trees and if he ain t gone on the wrong tack altogether and made the poor little lady cry i think i ll do a bit of this business myself while i ve got the chance f or if i don t ten to one he ll be the story of the nest next and a fine show we ll make of ourselves ere with our manners and he loudly i will you tell miss about the five sisters or shall i glanced from one to the other in bewilderment the five sisters she echoed who are they here imagined as he often did that he had been asked a question such were our orders from mr he said in his quiet voice we s to be there to morrow quarter afore six with ropes and and shall not avail against the finger of the lord or the wrath of the almighty i said suddenly coming out of his abstraction and if th squire were alive he wouldn t have had em touched no not he he d ha starved sooner and if the five sisters are laid low the luck of the will lay low with em but it s not too late not too late and he turned his face now alive in its every feature with strong emotion to not too late if the squire s little is still her father s pride and glory and that s what i ve come for to the this night i ain t been inside the old for this ten ear or more but they s brought me me old stiff as i am and as i am to see ye my dear little and ask ye for god s love to save the old trees as waved in the free and wild for o years and deserves more gratitude from s than for long he began to tremble with nervous excitement and put her hand soothingly on his arm god s good man i you must down she said you will be so tired standing i sit down and tell me all about it i what trees are you speaking of and who is going to cut them down you see i don t know anything about the place yet i ve only just arrived but if they are my trees and you say my father would not have wished them to be cut down they shan t be cut down i be sure of that s eyes sparkled and he waved his battered hat triumphantly didn t i tell ye he exclaimed turning round upon didn t i say as ow this was the way to do it and as ow the little i knew as a would listen to me when she wouldn t listen to no one else an as ow the five sisters would be spared an t i right t smiled you really must sit down she said again gently persuading him into his chair wherein sank heavily like a stone though his face shone with and vigour and she addressed that who had been standing in the background watching the little scene bring some glasses of port wine vanished to execute this order now you dear old man continued drawing up an settle close to s knee and herself with a confidential air you must tell me just what	33
you want me to do and i will do it she looked a mere child with her fair face and her rippling hair falling loosely away from her brows a great tenderness softened s eyes as he fixed them upon her god almighty bless ye i he said raising his trembling hand above her head god bless ye in your and and make the old and the old ways sweet to ye i for there s naught like ome in a wild wandering world and naught like love to make out of sorrow god bless ye dear little and give ye all your art s desire if so be it s for your good and l instinctively bent her head with a pretty reverence imder the of so venerable a personage and gently pressed the wrinkled hand as it slowly dropped again then glancing at she said softly he s very tired fm afraid perhaps too tired to tell me all he wishes to say will you explain what it is he wants thus took courage god s good man thank ye kindly miss and if i may make so bold it s not what he wants more n all the village wants and we ve been against for to the chance of your ome to do it for us he s a rare good man and he s done all he can and he s been and seen but it ain t all no use he paused as interrupted him by a gesture she he s my agent here i believe so miss he was put in as agent the squire s death and he s been ere ever since bad luck to im and he s been a down timber on the place whenever he s took a mind to no by your leaves and none of us t no right to say a he bein master but when it comes to the five sisters why then we if the five sisters lay low there s an end of the pride and prosperity of tiie village an he be main about it for he do love trees like as they were his own brothers m more n brothers for sometimes there s no love lost the likes o they and your pardon miss he sent me to ye with a message from fore dinner but you was a down and couldn t be disturbed so i goes down to here indicated the silent with a jerk of his he be the ere under mr s orders as deaf as a post unless you at him but a good man for all that and i you and me go an fetch old and see if bein the oldest n as they in books he can t get a with miss and so ere we be miss for the trees be and he turned abruptly to and the trees for down tomorrow speak fair i heard and at once gave a statement by mr s orders miss he said addressing the five old trees on the which the village folk call the five sisters are to be to morrow they ve stood so i m told an so i two or three hundred years and they re going to be cut down i exclaimed i never heard of such wickedness i how disgraceful i saw by the movement of her lips that she was and therefore at once himself subsided into silence e g m took up the he s nigh stone deaf miss so you ll sense him if he don t god s good man open his mouth no more till we shouts at him but what he is true enough at six o clock to morrow here entered with the port wine where does the agent live i really couldn t say miss i ll ask tain t no use said he lives a mile out of the village but he ain t at ome this bein gone to town for a bit o at cards lor miss yer pardon with the cards do get rid o timber it do now took a glass of port wine from the tray which handed to her and gave it herself to old her mind had entirely grasped the situation despite the nature of s discourse a group of historic old trees were to be by the agent s orders at six o clock the next morning unless she prevented it that was the sum total of the argument and here was something for her to do and she resolved to do it now she said with a smile you must drink a glass of wine to my health and you also and you i and she nodded to and and be quite satisfied about the trees they shall not be touched god ble s said drinking off his wine at a and long life t ye and to enjoy it with a s due appreciation of a good old brand at his glass slowly while hastily his measure of the cordial wiped his mouth with the back of his hand murmuring your good an many of em i ye long days o peace an plenty said between his as fur as the trees is you ll me miss for it but the time bein short i don t see ow it s goin to be bein away and no post delivered at his till eight o clock i will settle all that said you must leave everything to me in the meantime and she glanced at then turned to will you try and make your friend understand an order i want to give him or shall i ask mrs to come and speak to him lord love ye hell be to hear me than his wife yer pardon said with entire	33
frankness god s good man he s too accustomed to her an wouldn t get a clear impression like i and he uplifted his voice in a roar that made the old of the hall ring get ready to take miss s orders will ye was instantly on the alert and put his hand to his ear tell him please said still addressing that he is to meet the agent as arranged at the appointed place to morrow morning hut that he is not to take any ropes or or any men with him he is simply to say that by miss s orders the trees are not to be touched these words into s organs of hearing a look first of astonishment and then of fear came over the simple fellow s face i m afraid he at last faltered that the lady does not know what a hard man mr is he ll as good as kill me if i go there alone to him i lord love ye man you won t be alone i roared there s plenty in the village take care o that i say to him continued steadily noting the s troubled countenance he must now remember that i am mistress here and that my orders even if given at the last moment are to be obeyed that s it chuckled knocking his stick on the in a kind of ecstasy that s it i things ain t goin to be as they as been now the squire s little is ome that s it and he nodded emphatically give a rope enough an he ll by the neck till he be dead and the lord ha mercy on his soul i smiled watching all her three quaint visitors with a sensation of mingled interest and amusement d ye hear you re to tell shouted that miss is mistress ere and her orders is to be obeyed at the last moment i which you might ha understood without my throat to tell ye if ye had a little more sense which can t be what are ye of eh mr is a hard man continued anxiously glancing at he would lose me my place if he could heard and privately decided that the person to lose his place would be himself it is quite exciting i he thought i was wondering a while ago what i to amuse myself in the country and here i am called upon god s good man at once to remedy wrongs and settle village i nothing could be more novel and delightful aloud she said none of the people who were in my father s service will lose their places with me unless for some very serious fault please and she raised her eyes in pretty appeal to please make everybody understand that are you one of the here shook his head no miss i m the s head man i does all his and keeps a few flowers in the churchyard there s a rose over the cross on the old squire s grave what will do ye good to see come another fortnight of this warm weather but he be main about the five sisters and as ow worked for the old squire at an like he thought i might be able to to ye i said thoughtfully surveying with renewed interest the old world figure of in his clean frock now how are you going to get home again and a smile her face will you carry him along just as you brought him why yes miss it ll be all goin now and there s a moon and it ll be easy work and if so be we re sure the five sisters be saved you may be perfectly certain of it said interrupting him with a little gesture of decision only you must impress well on mr here that my orders are to be obeyed yer pardon miss what is of is that may tell him he s a liar and may jest refuse to obey that s quite on the cards miss it is now oh is it indeed and s eyes flashed with a sudden fire that made them look brighter and deeper than ever and revealed a depth of hidden character not lacking in self will well we shall see i at any rate i have given my orders and i expect them to be carried out you understand i do miss and touched his an while we re easy with i ll get it well rubbed into and by yer leave if you t no objection tell that is your orders and m he ll find a way of than we can was not particularly disposed to have the god s good man brought into her affairs but she the lightly aside you can do as you like about that she said carelessly as the parson is your master you can of course tell him if you think he will be interested but i really don t see why he should be asked to interfere my orders are sufficient a very decided ring of authority in the clear voice warned that here was a lady who was not to be or to be told this or that or to be put off from her intentions by any influence whatsoever he could not very well offer a reply so he merely touched his again and was silent then turned to now are you quite happy she asked quite easy in your mind about lie trees thanks be to the lord and you god bless ye said i m sure the five sisters wave their leaves in the blessed wind long i m laid under the turf and the i sleep easy this night for it and thank ye kindly and all be with and if i never	33
sees ye no more now don t talk nonsense said with a pretty little air of remonstrance such a clever old person as you are ought to know better than to be morbid i never see me no more indeed why i m coming to see you soon very soon i shall find out where you live and i shall pay you a visit i m a dreadful you shall tell me all about the village and the people in it and i m sure i shall learn more from you in an hour than if i studied the place by myself for a week shan t i was decidedly flattered the port wine had his nose and had given an extra twinkle to his eyes well i ain t goin to deny but what i knows a thing or two he began with a sly glance at her of course you do heaps of things i shall them all out of you and now good night no don t get up for was making efforts to rise from his chair again just stay where you are and let them carry you carefully home good night she gave a little salute which included all three of her rustic visitors and moved away passing under the heavily carved arched beams of oak which divided the hall from the rest of the house she turned her head backward over her shoulder with a smile good night god s good man waved his old hat good night my beauty good night to squire s good night but before he could pile on any more she was gone and the butler stood in her place m help give you a lift down to the gates he said surveying with considerable interest you re a game old chap for your age i was still waving his hat to the dark through which s white figure had vanished ain t she a beauty ain t she jest a real pride he demanded excitedly lord we won t know ourselves in a month or two you my boys see if what i say don t come true may cheat the but he won t cheat them blue eyes let him try ever so they ll be the lord s arrows in his skin you see if they ain t here gave a signal to and they hoisted up the carrying chair between them it behind there ain t goin to be no low of the five sisters i continued with increasing and excitement as he was borne out into the and there ain t goin to be no devil s work round the old no more welcome ome to squire s welcome ome i shut up said though kindly enough soon part with all the breath you ve got in yer body if ye makes a owl of like that in the night air you s done enough for once in a way keep easy an quiet while we carries ye back to the village ye a hundred pound if ye re noisy ye do now thus subsided into silence and what with the joy he felt at the success of his the warm still air and the soothing influence of the moonlight he soon fell fast asleep and did not wake till he arrived at his own home in safety having deposited him there and seen to his comfort and left him to his night s rest and held a brief outside his cottage door fm awful goin to morrow up to the five sisters with ne er a tool and ne er a man be that wild said his face at the very thought if i could but ave ad written instructions like why didn t you ask for em while you ad the chance demanded it s too late now to bother your mind with what ye might ha done if ye d had a bit of god s good man tion and it s too late for me to be goin and to there s to be done now till the to be done till the echoed with a sigh catching these words by happy chance all the same she s a fine young lady and er orders is to be obeyed she ain t a bit like what i expected her to be nor she ain t what i bet she would be said heedless as to whether his companion heard him or not i ve lost a crown to my old for i i she s bound to be a an mighty stuck up sort o miss won t never ave a for the likes of we an my old she to me go long with ye for a great silly as ye are i ll bet ye a crown she won t be i so i done an done it is for she s just as sweet as in the spring an seems as gentle as a lamb though i reckon she s got a will of er own and a mind to do what she likes when and ow she likes i ll ave a fine bit o talk with bout her as soon as he gives me the chance ay good night it is observed placidly taking all these remarks as evening yon moon s got and it s time for bed if so be we rises early easy rest ye nodded it was all the response necessary the two then separated going their different ways to their different homes having to get back to the and a possible curtain lecture from his wife all the village was soon asleep and eleven o clock rang from the church tower over closed cottages in which not a of lamp or candle was to be seen the shed a silver rain upon the outlines of the	33
neatly roofs and with touches of radiance as from heaven the beautiful god s house which the whole cluster of humble everything was very quiet the little hive of humanity had ceased and the intense stillness was only broken by the occasional murmur of a ripple breaking from the river against the shore up at the however the lights were not yet extinguished on the departure of as she had called him and his two had sent for mrs and had gone very closely with her into certain matters connected with mr it had been difficult work f or mrs s combined with her habit of wandering from the immediate point of discussion and her anxiety to avoid herself or her husband in god s good man trouble had created a confusion in her mind which somewhat interfered with the of her statements little by little however extracted a sufficient number of facts from her hesitating and reluctant evidence to gain considerable information on many points respecting the management of her estate and she began to feel that her return home was and had been in a manner pre ordained she learned all that mrs could tell her respecting the famous five sisters how they were the and most venerable trees in all country round and how they stood all together on a grassy eminence about a mile and a half from the house and on the lands just beyond the more low lying woods that spread between whereupon decided that she would take an early ride over her property the next day and gave orders that her favourite mare ready and should be brought round to the door at five o clock the next morning this being settled and mrs having also humbly stated that all the s feathers she could find had been cast forth from the through the medium of the post bade her a kindly good night to morrow she said we will go all over the house together and you will explain everything to me but the first thing to be done is to save those old trees no one wouldn t ave saved em if so be as you t come ome miss declared mrs for mr he be a man of his word and as as they makes em which the lord almighty knows men is all made as as pigs and he s been master over the place like more s the pity said but he is master here no longer i am now both mistress and master that please mrs and withdrew the close cross examination she had undergone respecting had convinced her of two things that her new mistress though such a looking creature was no fool and secondly that though she was perfectly gentle kind and even affectionate in her manner she evidently had a will of her own which it seemed likely she would enforce if necessary with considerable vigour and and so the worthy old housekeeper decided that on the whole it y ould be well to be careful to mind one s p s and q s as it were to pause before rushing into a flood of speech god s good man and to pay the possible attention to her regular duties then m stay on in the old place she considered but if we those things which we ought not to have done as they in the prayer book well get the sack in no time for au that she looks so and like and so profound were her on this point that she actually forgot to give her husband the sound she had prepared for him concerning the part he had taken in bringing up to the returning from the village in some that harmless man was allowed to go to bed and sleep in peace with no more than a into his ears to be up with the dawn as miss would be about early herself meanwhile quite unconscious that her small personality had made any marked or tremendous effect upon her retired to rest in happy mood she was glad to be in her own home and still more glad to find herself needed there i ve been an absolutely useless creature up till now she said shaking down her hair after the maid had her and left her for the night the fact is there never was a more utterly idle and creature in the world than i ami i ve done nothing but dress and curl my hair and polish my face and dance and and the time away now if i only am able to save ve historical old trees i shall have done something useful something more than half the women i know would ever take the trouble to do for of course i suppose i shall have a row or as aunt would say words with the agent all the better i i love a fight especially with a man who thinks himself wiser than i am that is where men are so ridiculous they always think themselves wiser than women even though some of them can t earn their own living except through a woman s means lots of men will take a woman s money and sneer at her while spending it i i know them and she into her bed with a little movement of her soft white shoulders take all and give nothing is the motto of modem manhood i don t admire it i don t it i never shall the true motto of love and chivalry should be give take nothing midnight from the she listened to the mellow with a sense of pleased comfort and security god s good man many people would think of ghosts and all sorts of things in an old old house like this at midnight she thought	33
by one of the great trees and you have and wounded who brought you those orders shame on you man jail is more likely to receive you as a tenant than any of these lads here he turned to the young men who on seeing their minister had somewhat lifting their caps and backward on other s toes go home boys he said yet kindly there s nothing for you to do here go home to your and your work the trees won t be touched oh won t they sneered now perfectly white with passion who s going to pay me for the breaking of my contract i should like to know the trees are sold were sold as they stand a fortnight ago and down they me today orders or no orders have my own men up here at in less than an hour turned upon him god s good man very well then i shall ask miss to set the police to watch her trees and take you into he said coolly if you have sold the trees standing to cover your gambling debts you will have to them that s all i they never were yours to dispose of you can no more sell them than you can sell the you have no permission to make money for yourself out of other people s property that kind of thing is common though it may sometimes pass for estate agency business sprang forward his whip uplifted but before it could fall with one unanimous yell the young rushed upon him and it from his hand at this moment who had been silently binding s cut forehead with a red cotton handkerchief so that the poor man presented the appearance of a stage warrior suddenly looked up uttered an exclamation and gave a warning signal better not go on wi the now i he said ere comes the even as he spoke the quick gallop of hoofs echoed on the turf and the group of hastily scattered to right and left as a magnificent mare wild eyed and glossy dashed into their centre and came to a swift halt drawn up in an instant by the touch of her rider on the rein all eyes were turned to the slight woman s figure in the saddle that sat so easily that swayed the reins so lightly and that seemed as it were high above them in superiority a figure wholly clad in a riding skirt and jacket of a deep soft violet hue and wearing no hat to shield the bright hair from the fresh wind that waved its fair to and fro and tossed a shining curl loose from the carelessly twisted murmurs of the new i th squire s ran from mouth to mouth and john seized by a sudden embarrassment withdrew as far as possible into the shadow of the trees in a kind of nervous hope to escape from the young lady s decidedly haughty glance which swept like a of light round the assembled group and settled at last with chill scrutiny on the livid and breathless you are the agent here i presume s rang cold and clear there was not a trace of the sweet tone in it that had warmed the heart of old looked up lifting his cap half reluctantly god s good man i ami you have had my orders was silent the young one another forward moved by strong excitement au eager to see the feminine who had descended upon them as suddenly as a vision falling from ihe skies and all wondering what would happen next you have had my orders repeated then as no answer was vouchsafed to her she looked round and perceived to him she at once addressed herself who has struck v hesitated it was an exceedingly awkward position he looked as was his wont up into the air and among the highest branches of the five sisters for but naturally could not discover him at that elevation come come said you are not all deaf i hope i give me a straight answer one of you i who struck did said the big lad who had constituted himself s we down in the village as ow you d come ome miss and as ow you d give your orders that the five sisters was to be left and we up wi to see ow ud take it an fore we could say a he up wi his whip and cut across the for as ye see raised her hand and silenced him with a gesture thank you that will do i understand she turned towards what have you to say for yourself i take no orders from a servant replied i have managed this estate for ten years and i give in my statements and receive my instructions from the firm of who have it in charge i am not called upon to accept any different arrangement without proper notice heard him out with coldly attentive patience you will accept a different arrangement without any further notice at all she said you will leave the premises and resign all management of my property from this day i dismiss you for and insolence and for my servant in the execution of his duty and as for these trees if any man touches a bough of one of them without my permission i will have him i now you know my mind she sat proudly erect in her saddle while the village god s good man who had instinctively gathered round her like steel round a fairly gasped for breath dismissed the petty tyrant the jack in office cast out like a handful of bad rubbish i it was like a fallen from heaven and the earth on which they stood heard and could scarcely keep back a chuckle of satisfaction he longed	33
to make understand what was going on but that unfortunate individual was slightly stunned by s heavy blow and sitting on the grass with his head between his two hands was gazing in a kind of at the new so that any into his ear was scarcely possible himself stared and his face with a sudden rush of enraged blood and then again and changing his former insolent tone for one both and he stammered out i am very sorry i i beg your pardon madam if you wiu give yourself a little time to consider you will see i have done my duty on this property all the time i have been connected with it i hope you will not dismiss me for the first fault i i i admit i should not have struck i i was taken by surprise i i know my business and i am not accustomed to be interfered with here his pent up anger got the better of him and he again began to i have done my duty no man better i he said in fierce accents there s not an acre of here that isn t in a better condition than it was ten years ago and bringing in more money tool and now i am to be turned off for a parcel of village who hardly know a from an elm i ll make a case of it sir knows me i ll speak to sir sir echoed what has he to do with me or my property here she suddenly who in his eagerness to hear every word that passed had unconsciously to himself moved well out of the shadow of the trees are you sir a broad grin deepening into a scarcely suppressed went the round of the gaping young himself smiled and that the time had now come to declare himself he advanced a step or two and lifted his hat i have not that pleasure i am the minister of this parish and my name is john i m afraid i am rather a god s good man here i but i have loved these old trees for many years and i came up this morning heard what your orders were from my gardener to see that orders were properly carried out and also to save possible disturbance he broke off while he spoke had eyed him somewhat and now favoured him with a charming smile thank you very much she said sweetly it was most kind of you i i wonder and she paused knitting her pretty brows in perplexity i wonder if you could get rid of everybody for me he glanced up at her in a little could you she repeated he drew nearer get rid of everybody you mean she leaned from her saddle yes you send them all about their business can always do that can t they there s really nothing more to be said or done the trees shall not be touched the matter is finished tell all these big boys to go away and oh you know i a twinkle of merriment danced in s eyes but he turned quite a set and serious face round on the lads of the village who hung about loth to lose a single glance or a single word of the wonderful who had the audacious courage to dismiss now boys i he said clear away home and begin your day s work you re not wanted here any longer the trees are safe and you can tell what miss says about them you take these fellows home had better go with you just call at the doctor s on the way and get his wound attended to come now boys sharp s the word a general movement followed this brief with shy awkwardness each young fellow lifted his cap as he past who acknowledged these assisted to rise to his feet and then took him off under his personal escort and only remained his dog whip which he had picked up from the ground where the lads had thrown it and anon striking it against his boot with a movement of impatience and irritation mr i said but stood still looking at god s good man miss he said hoarsely am i to understand that you meant what you said just now she glanced at him coldly that i dismiss you from my service of course i meant it i of course i mean it i am bound to have fair notice he muttered i cannot collect all my accounts in a moment whatever else you may do you will leave this place at once said firmly i will communicate my decision to the and they will settle with you no more words please she turned her mare slowly round on the grassy looking up meanwhile at the lovely of tremulous young green above her head john watched her so did and with a sudden oath out like a bursting in the still air he exclaimed savagely you shall repent this my fine lady i by god you you shall the day you ever saw again you had far better have stayed with your rich yankee relations than have made such a home coming as this for yourself and such an for me my curse on you i shaking his fist at her he sprang down the and plunging through the grass and was soon lost to sight the soft colour in s cheeks a little and a slight tremor ran through her frame she looked at then laughed carelessly guess i ve given him fits i she said into one of her aunt s american with happy that this particular	33
phrase coming from her pretty lips sent a kind of shock through john s sensitive nerves he s not a very pleasant man to meet anyway and it isn t altogether agreeable to be cursed on the first morning of my return home but after all it doesn t matter much as there s a clergyman present i and her blue eyes danced isn t it lucky you came you can stop that curse on its way and send it back like a pigeon can t you what do you say when you do it me or something of that kind isn t it whatever it is say it now won t you laughed he could not help laughing she spoke with such a and she looked so pretty really miss i don t think i need utter any god s good man special on this occasion he said gaily you have done a good action to the whole community by good actions bring their own reward while curses like chickens come home to pray forgive me for quoting but for the curse of one ill you will have the thanks and blessings of all your that will take the edge off the don t you think so she turned her mare in the homeward direction and began to guide it gently down the slope walking by her side john held back one of the vast leafy boughs of the great trees to allow her to pass more easily and glanced up at her as he put his question she met his eyes with an open frankness that somewhat disconcerted him well i don t know about that she replied you see in these days of and suggestion there may be something very catching about a curse it s just like a little seed of disease if it falls on the right soil it and and then all manner of wicked souls get the i believe that in the old days everybody guessed this instinctively without being able to express it and that s why they ran to the church for protection against curses and the evil eye and things of that sort see how some of the old curses cling even to this day the only way to take the sting out of a curse is to get it and she smiled glancing up into the brightening blue of the sky like a song you know if it s too low for the voice you it to a higher key i the church was able to do that in the days when it had real faith oh i beg your pardon i ought not to say that to a man of your calling why not said pray say anything you like to me miss i should be a very poor and unsatisfactory sort of creature if i could not bear any criticism on my besides i quite agree with you the early church had certainly more faith than it has now you re not a bit like a parson said gravely studying his face with embarrassing and you look quite a nice pleasant sort of man john laughed again this time with sincere s eyes and little came and went round her mouth and chin you seem amused at that she said but seen a god s good man great deal of life and i have met heaps and heaps of young and old and they were all horrid simply horrid some talked bible and others talked the sporting times any amount of them talked the drama and played in private i never met but one real minister that is a man who ministers to the poor and he died in a london before he was thirty i believe he was a saint and if he had lived in the days of the early church he would certainly have been he would have been saint william his name was william but he was only one william i ve seen hundreds of them hundreds of this time it was who laughed a gay little like that of a child no i guess she answered some of them are real oh dear me and again her laughter broke forth i quite forgot i you said your name was john so it is and he smiled tm sorry you don t like it she checked her merriment abruptly and became suddenly serious but i do like you mustn t think i don t oh how rude i must seem to please forgive met i really do like the name of john i he glanced up at her still smiling thank you it s very kind of you to say so you believe me don t you she said persistently of course i do of course i though unhappily a i am not altogether a the smile deepened in his eyes and as she met his somewhat glance a slight wave of colour rose to her cheeks and brow she drew herself up in her saddle with a sudden proud movement and carried her little head a trifle higher looked at her now as he would have looked at a charming picture without the least embarrassment she appeared so extremely young to him she awakened in his mind a feeling of kindly paternal interest such as he might have felt for or frost he was not even quite sure that he considered her in any way out of the common so far as her beauty was concerned though he recognised that she was almost the living image of the lady in the vi let velvet whose portrait adorned the gallery in s the resemblance was heightened by the violet colour of the riding dress she wore and the absence of any head covering save her own pretty brown gold hair god	33
s good man fm glad saved the old trees she said presently checking her mare s pace arid looking back at the five sisters standing in grandeur on their grassy throne i feel a pleasant consciousness of having done something useful they are beautiful i haven t looked at them half enough i shall come here all by myself this afternoon and bring a book and read under their lovely boughs just now i ve only had time to cry rescue she hesitated a moment then added i m very much obliged to you for your assistance mr and i m glad you also like the trees they shall never be touched in my lifetime i assure you and i believe yes i believe i ll put something in my last will and testament about them something binding you something that will set up a block in the way of land agents trees as th se ought to stand as long as nature will allow them was silent somehow her tone had changed from kind to ordinary formality and her eyes rested upon him with a cool slightly expression the mare was restless and the green turf impatiently she for a gallop said patting the fine creature s glossy neck don t you her name is queen of egypt isn t she a beauty she is indeed murmured with conventional politeness though he scarcely glanced at the animal she isn t a bit safe you know continued nobody can hold her but me i she s a perfectly magnificent hunter i have another one who is gentleness itself called my groom rides her he could never ride she paused patting the mare s neck again then gathering up the reins in her small loosely hand she said well good morning mr it was most kind of you to get up so early and come to help defend my trees i am ever so grateful to you i pray call and see me at the when you have nothing better to do you will be very welcome she nodded gracefully to him and a few loose curls of lovely hair fell with the action like a web of over her brow smiling she tossed them back good bye she called he raised his hat and in another moment the gallop of s swift hoofs across the grass and echoed over the fields gradually and dying away as mare god s good man i and rider disappeared within the green of the woods he stood for a while looking the vanishing flash of violet brown and gold over the turf and disappearing under the twisted boughs of oak and elm and then started to walk home himself his face was a study of curiously mingled expressions surprise amusement and a touch of admiration struggled for the mastery in his mind and he was compelled to admit to himself reluctantly that the doubtfully anticipated squire ess was by no means the sort of person he had expected to see he was at one with like a little sugar figure on a wedding cake looking sweet and smiling pleasant thought recalling his gardener s description scarcely that i she has a will of her own and possibly a temper i a kind of spoilt child woman i should imagine just the person to wear all the mrs was so anxious about the other day and quite frivolous enough to squeeze her feet into shoes a couple of sizes too small for her beautiful no her features are not regular enough for actual beauty pretty well perhaps she in a certain sense but i m no judge fascinating possibly she might be to some men she certainly has a sweet voice and a very charming manner and i don t think she likely to be disagreeable or but there is nothing remarkable about her she s just a woman with a bright smile and a touch of american vivacity running through her english just a woman with a way and he strode on his trotting at his heels but he was on the whole glad he had met the lady of the because now he no longer felt any uneasiness concerning her his curiosity was satisfied his instinctive dislike of her had changed to a kindly and his somewhat morbid interest in her arrival had quite the five sisters were saved that was a good thing and as for miss herself she was evidently a harmless creature who would most likely play and all day and take very little interest in anything except herself she will not interfere with me nor i with her said with a sigh of satisfaction and relief and though we live in the same village we shall be as far apart as the poles which is a great comfort t xi home the woods in complacent and lively humour the first few hours of her return to the home of her forefathers had certainly not been lacking in interest and excitement she had heard and granted a village appeal she had stopped an act of she had saved ye of the noblest trees in england she had conquered the hearts of several village she had thrust a tyrant out of office she had been cursed by the said tyrant a circumstance which was to say the very least of it quite new to her experience and almost dramatic and she had made eyes at a parson surely this was enough adventure for one morning especially as it was not yet eight o clock the whole day had yet to come possibly she might be involved later on in still more thrilling and who could tell she a song for pure gaiety of heart and told the rustling leaves and opening	33
flowers in very pronounced french that a beau se d de s le moment il se n queen of egypt and at every check imposed on her rein as became an she was conscious of the elastic turf under her hoofs and glad of the fresh pure air in her nostrils and her mistress shared with her the sense of freedom and which an open country and fair landscape must naturally inspire in those to whom life is a daily and vigorous delight not a mere sickly brooding over the past or a morbid anticipation of the future the woods surrounding s were by no means they were not dark silent of solemn pine leading into deeper and deeper gloom but cheery and picturesque of elm and and oak broken at constant intervals with and i o god s good man i i true english woods suggestive of delicate romance and and made by the songs of birds whose silver are never heard to sweeter advantage than under the leafy boughs of such green lanes and as yet remain to make the charm and of rural england peeped out in smiling clusters from every nook and the pale purple of a spread a wave of soft colour among the last year s fallen leaves which had served good purpose in keeping the tender warm till spring should lift them from their earth into blossom s bright eyes glancing here and there saw and noted a thousand beauties at every turn the chains of social and had fallen from her soul and a joyous pulse of freedom quickened her blood and sent it dancing through her veins in currents of new and vitality with her aunt she had lived a life of artificial against which despite its worldly brilliancy her inmost and best instincts had always more or less now finding herself alone as it were with mother nature she sprang like a child to that great maternal bosom and there with a sense of glad refreshment and peace what dear she murmured now as s she rode more slowly along and the standing up among of green making exquisite contrast with the golden glow of and the fragile white of wood they are ever so much prettier than the hot house things one gets any day in paris and london i big forced roses great lilies and oh dear how tired i am of i every evening a of for five weeks sundays not shall i ever forget the detestable rare specimens a little frown her brow and for a moment the lines of her pretty mouth drooped and with a expression like that of a child going to cry it was complete persecution i she went on her complaints to herself and patting s arched neck by way of accompaniment to her thoughts absolute and round comers after the style of a police i just hate a lover who makes his love if it is love into a kind of whip to your poor soul with here there everywhere he was just like the water in the ancient and not a drop to drink at i god s good man the play at the opera in the picture galleries at the races at the flower shows at all the and functions in london in paris in new york in st in always ce as aunt said money no consideration distance no object always ce stiff as a clean as fresh paint and apparently as virtuous as an old maid with all his aristocratic family behind him and a long of ghosts in the shadow of time extending away back to some saxon who no doubt were coarse that ate more raw meat than was good for them and had to be carried to bed dead drunk on it is so absurd to boast of one s if we could only just see the dreadful men who began all the great families we should be perfectly ashamed of them most of them tore up their food with their fingers now we are supposed to be descended from a warrior bold named robert de who fought in the poor uncle used to be so proud of that he was always talking about it especially when we were in america he liked to try and make the pilgrim jealous just as he used to boast that if he had only been born three minutes before my father instead of three minutes after he would have been the owner of s that three minutes delay and consideration he took about coming into the world made him the youngest twin and cut off his chances and he told me that robert the had a brother named who was believed to have founded a somewhere in this neighbourhood and who died so the story goes during a pilgrimage to the holy land though there s no trace left of either or robert anywhere they might of course have been very decent and agreeable men but it s rather doubtful if went on a pilgrimage he would never have washed himself to begin with it would have destroyed his and as for robert the warrior bold he would have been dreadfully fierce and hairy and i m quite sure i could not possibly have asked him to dinner she laughed at her own fancies and guided her mare under a drooping of early wild just for the sheer pleasure of springing lightly up in her saddle to pull off a of scented white blossom the fact is she continued half aloud there s nobody i can ask to dinner even now as it is not down here the local descriptions of sir do not tempt me to god s good man make his acquaintance and as for the parson i met just	33
the and men generally know that if they want to speak to me they can always see me from ten to half past every morning and by the way tell the maids to go about their work quietly there is nothing more objectionable than a noise and fuss in the house just because a room is being swept and turned out i simply hate it in the event of any quarrels or complaints please refer them to me and and here she paused again with a smile i think that s all for the present i haven t yet gone through the library or the picture gallery however those rooms have nothing to do with the ordinary daily housekeeping if i find anything wanting to be done there i ll send for you again but that s about all now i poor mrs and she was not going to have it all her own way as she had fondly imagined when she first saw the apparently child like personality of her new lady the child like personality was merely the rose flesh covering of a somewhat determined character and anything i can do for you or for your husband continued dropping her business like tone for one of as a sweetness as ever shakespeare s practised for the persuasion of her too nurse will be done with ever so much pleasure you know that don t you and she laid her pretty little hands on the worthy woman s shoulders you shall go out whenever you like after work of course i duty first pleasure second and you shall even if you feel like it and have your little when the midday meal is done with aunt s housekeeper in london used to have them and she dreadfully the second footman quite a nice lad used to her nose with a straw but i can t afford to keep a second footman one is quite enough or a coachman or a carriage besides i would always rather ride than drive and my groom will only want a stable boy to help him with and so i hope there ll be no one downstairs to you dear by your nose i god s good man with a straw looks much too staid and respectable to think of such a thing she laughed merrily and mrs for the life of her could not help laughing too the picture of to indulge in a game of nose and straw was too grotesque to be considered with gravity well i never miss i she ejaculated you do put things that funny do i fm so said it s nice to be funny to other people even if you re not funny to yourself i but i want you to understand from the first that must feel happy and contented in my household so if anything goes wrong you must tell me and i will try and set it right now i m going for an hour s walk with and when i come in and have had my tea visit the picture gallery i know all about it uncle told me she paused and her eyes darkened with a wistful and deepening gravity then she added gently i shall not want you there i must be quite alone mrs again humbly and was about to withdraw when called her back what about the clergyman here mr she asked is he a nice man kind to the village people i mean and good to the poor mrs gave a kind of gasp folded her fat hands tightly together in front of her apron and launched forth straightway on her favourite theme mr is jest one of the finest men god ever made miss she said with solemnity and you may take my word for it he s that good that as we often if m there ain t no saint in the an no but dust we ve got a real live saint free among us as is far more to look at in his plain coat an trousers than they an in the books wi ropes around their an bald crowns which ain t no sign to me o bein full o grace but rather loss of air an which you will presently see yourself miss as ow mr s done the church beautiful like a dream as all the visitors which there isn t its like in all england an he s jest a father to the village an friends with every man woman an child in it an to in cases an works like a he do for the school which if he d ad a wife it might a been better an it might a been worse the lord only knows for no woman would a come up ere an stood that patient god s good man me an my work an i tell you truly miss that when your boxes came an i had to em an sort the clothes in em i sent for jest to show im that i felt my an he he you go on your duty an your lady will be all right an though i begged im to stop he wouldn t while i was a your dresses with here she was interrupted by a ringing peal of laughter from who running to her put a little hand on her mouth stop stop i she exclaimed oh dear oh dear do you think i can understand all this did you show the parson my clothes actually you did i for mrs nodded violently in the affirmative good gracious what a perfectly dreadful thing to do and she laughed again and what is the saint in the here she removed her	33
of the whole building and then went out again into the churchyard there she paused her dog beside her her eyes from the sun as she looked wistfully from right to left across the sadly suggestive little of turf with in search of an object which was as a of disaster in her life she saw it at last and moved slowly towards it a plain white marble cross rising from a smooth grassy eminence where a rambling rose carefully and even trained was just beginning to show pale among its glossy dark green leaves great tears rose to her eyes and fell as she read the brief inscription sacred to the memory of robert of s this being followed by the usual dates of birth and death and the one word resting with tender touch gathered one leaf from the climbing rose foliage and kissing it amid her god s good man tears turned away unable to bear the thoughts and memories which began to crowd thickly upon her she seemed to hear her father s deep mellow voice which had been the music of her childhood saying as was so often his wont well my little girl how goes the world with you alas the world had gone very ill with her for a long long time after his death hers was too loving and passionately clinging a nature to find easy consolation for such a loss her uncle though indulgent to her and always kind had never filled her father s place her uncle s american wife had in spite of much conscientious and altogether failed to win her affection or sympathy the sorrowful sense that she was an orphan all alone as it were with herself to face the mystery of life never deserted her and it was perhaps in the most brilliant of that this consciousness of chiefly weighed upon her she saw other girls around her with their fathers and mothers brothers and sisters but she she by the very act of being bom had caused her mother s death and she well knew that her father s heart quietly as he had endured his grief to all outward appearances had never healed of that wound i think i should never have come into the world at all she said to herself with a sigh as she returned over the fields to the i am no use to anybody i never have been of any use aunt says all i have to do to show my sense of proper feeling and gratitude to her for her care of me is to marry and marry well marry lord in short he will be a duke when his father dies and aunt would like to have the satisfaction of leaving her millions to an english nothing could commend itself more to her ideas only it just happens my ideas won t fit in the same oh dear why can t i be and become a future and build up the fortunes of a great family i don t know fm sure except that i don t feel like it great families don t appeal to me i shouldn t care if there were none left they are never interesting at the best of times perhaps out of several of them may come one clever man or woman and all the rest will be utter it isn t worth while to marry on such grounds of possibility entering the she was conscious of some fatigue and a touch of depression weighed down her rally bright spirits she exchanged her home spun walking god s good man dress for a tea gown and descended somewhat languidly to the morning room where tea was served with more than on the previous day having taken command with the assistance of the footman both stole respectful glances at their mistress as she sat alone at the open window looking out on the landscape that spread away from the terrace in of lawn foliage and field to the last border of trees that closed in s grounds from the public highway both would have said had they been asked that she was much too pretty and delicate to be au alone in the great old house with no companion of her own age to exchange ideas with by speech or glance and with that masculine self assurance which is common to all the lords of creation whether they be or household they would have that she ought to be married in which they would have entirely agreed with s aunt but s own mind was far from being set on such as love and marriage her meditations were melancholy and not with self reproach she blamed herself for having stayed away so long from her childhood s home and her father s grave i might have visited it at least once a year she thought with sharp i never really forgot why did i seem to forget the sun was sinking slowly in a glory of crimson and cloud when having resolved upon what she was going to do she entered the picture gallery softly she trod the polished floor with keen quick instinct and eyes she noted the fine portraits the exquisite that shone out star like from a dark comer of the walls and walking with measured pace she went straight up to the picture of mary de and gazed at it with friendly and familiar eyes i know you quite well i she said addressing the painted beauty i have often dreamed about you since i left home i always admired you and wanted to be like you i remember when i must have been about seven or eight years old i ran in from a game in the garden one	33
summer s afternoon and i knelt down in front of you and i said pray god make little as pretty as big mary i and i i think though of course i m not half or quarter as pretty m just a little like you i just a very very little for my hair is the same colour almost and my eyes no i god s good man tm sure i haven t such beautiful eyes as yours i wish i her lovely appeared to smile if she could have spoken from the canvas that held her painted image she might have said you have eyes that mirror the sunshine you have life and i am dead your day is still with you mine is done i for me love and the world s delight are ended and whither my phantom has fled who knows but you are a vital breathing essence of beauty be glad and rejoice in it while you may i some thought of this kind would have suggested itself to an imaginative had such an one stood by to compare the picture with its almost twin living copy however had a very small stock of vanity she was only pleasantly aware that she possessed a certain grace and fascination not common to the ordinary of her sex but beyond that she her personal charms at very slight value the portrait of mary made her more seriously discontented with herself than ever and after closely studying the picturesque make of the violet velvet riding dress which the fair one of charles the second s day had worn and deciding that she would have one created for her own exactly like it she turned towards the other end of the gallery there hung that guarded mysterious portrait of her mother which she herself had never gazed upon covered close with its dark green curtain a curtain no hand save her father s had ever dared to raise she remembered how often he had used to enter here all alone and lock the doors remaining thus in sorrow and solitude many hours she recalled her own childish fears when by chance running in to look at the pictures for her own entertainment or to play with her ball on a rainy day for the convenience of space and a lofty ceiling she was suddenly checked and held in awe by the sight of that great gilded frame the to her unknown of a veiled personality her father alone was familiar with the face hidden behind that covering which he had put up with his own hands it by means of a spring which in its turn was secured to the wall by lock and key ever since his death had worn that key on a gold chain hidden in her bosom and she drew it out now with a beating heart and many of hesitation the trailing folds of her pretty tea gown all of the old lace and ivory seemed to make an noise as they softly swept the floor she god s good man felt almost as though she were about to commit a and break open a shrine yet i must see she said i shall not offend her memory i have never done anything very wrong in my life if i had i should have reason to be or ashamed and then of course wouldn t dare to look at her i have often been silly and frivolous and thoughtless but never or malicious or really wicked i could meet my father if he were here just as frankly as if i were still a little girl and i think he would wish me to see his dearest now i his dearest i he always called her that i with the breath coming and going quickly through her parted lips she stepped slowly and timidly up to that comer in the wall behind the picture where the of the spring were concealed and fitted the key into the which guarded it the light of the setting sun threw a flame of glory through the windows and filled the gallery with a warm rush of living colour and radiance and as she removed the and came to the front of the picture to pull the curtain cord she stood unconsciously to herself in a pure of gold which the brown and shades of her hair and the folds of her gown so that she resembled an angel newly save wings for heaven such as one may see on the illuminated page of some antique her hand trembled as at the first touch on the the curtain began to move inch by inch it ascended showing pale of white and rose still higher it moved giving to the light a woman s beautiful hand so delicately painted as to seem almost living the hand held a letter and plainly on the half unfolded could be read the words thine till death another touch and the whole covering rolled up swiftly to its full height while breathless with excitement and interest gazed with all her soul in her eyes at the exquisite dreamy poetic loveliness of the face disclosed all the beauty of with the tenderness of womanhood all the visions of young romance united to the fulfilled passion of the heart all the happiness of a radiant life all the promise of a perfect love these were faithfully reflected in the purely features the dark blue eyes and the sweet god s good man mouth which to s imagination appeared to tremble with a sigh of longing for the joy of life that had been snatched away so soon arrayed in simplest white with a rose at her breast and her husband s letter clasped	33
in her hand the fair form of the young bride that never came home gathered from the radiance an aspect of life and seemed to float forth from the dark canvas like a holy spirit of beauty and blessing shadow and substance dead mother and living child these twain gazed on each other through cloud of impenetrable mystery nor is it impossible to conceive that some contact between them might through the of a thought a longing a prayer have been at that mystic moment with a sudden cry of irresistible emotion stretched out her arms and dropping on her knees broke out into a passion of tears oh mother mother i she sobbed oh darling mother i how i would have loved j tn such under the silent of the lost and loving dead tie long deserted old received back the sole daughter of its to that protection which we understand or did understand at one time in our history as home home was once a safe and sacred institution in england there seemed no of its ever being by the public that it has in a great measure been so is no advantage to the and that many women young and old prefer to be seen in over dressed taking their meals in eating houses rather than essay the becoming grace of a simple and sincere hospitality to their friends in their own homes is no evidence of their improved taste or good breeding s was in every sense home in the old english sense of the word its ancient walls by long tradition formed a peaceful and sweet harbour of rest for a woman s life and the tranquil dignity of her old world surroundings with all the legends and memories they awakened soon had a effect on s temperament which under her aunt s influence had been more or less and uneasy she began to feel at peace with herself and all the world while the relief she experienced at having deliberately severed herself by both word and act from the attentions of a too persistent and detested lover in the person of lord future duke of was as keen and as that of a child who has run away from school she was almost confident that the fact of her having thrown off her aunt s protection together with all hope of her aunt s wealth would be sufficient to keep him away from her for the future for it is aunt s money he wants not me she said to herself he doesn t care a about me personally any woman will do provided she has the millions and when he knows i ve given up the millions and don t intend ever to have the millions he ll leave me alone and hell go over to america in search of somebody else some proud daughter of oil or pork or steel i and what a blessing that will be i god s good man meanwhile such excitement as had been caused in st rest by the return of th squire s and by the almost dismissal of had weu nigh a new agent had been appointed and though had left the immediate vicinity having employment on sir s lands he had secured a cottage for himself in the small hamlet of he also undertook some work for the reverend in assisting him to form an collection for the private museum at hall mr had a singular fellow feeling for insects he studied their habits and collected specimens of various kinds in bottles or pinned them on he was an interested observer of the manners practised by the harvest and the sagacious customs of the spider as well as the many surprising and agreeable talents developed by the common s hatred of was not lessened by the apparently useful and scientific nature of the employment he had newly taken up under the guidance of his reverend and whenever he caught a butterfly and ran his pin through its quivering body at s bland command he thought of her and wished that she might perish as swiftly and utterly as the winged lover of the flowers every small bright thing in nature s garden that he and brought home as inspired him with the same secret fierce desire the act of killing a beautiful or harmless creature gave him pleasure and he did not disguise it from himself the reverend was delighted with his and with the many valuable additions he made to the specimen cards and bottles and the two became constant companions in their search for fresh victims among the and fields st rest as a village was only too glad to be rid of s long detested presence to care anything at all as to his further occupations or future career and only kept as he said an eye on him was a somewhat curious personage as he showed himself on most occasions he was both shrewd and no stone was more than he when he chose in his heart he had set as second to none save his own master john her beauty and grace her firm action with regard to the rescue of the five sisters and her quick dismissal of had all inspired him with the most unbounded admiration god s good man and respect and he felt that he now had a interest in life the and the lady of the but he found very little opportunity to talk his new and cherished theme of miss and miss s many attractions to for john always shut him up on the subject with quite a and decision whenever he so much as mentioned her name which conduct on the part of one who was generally so willing to hear and patient to listen somewhat surprised for he argued	33
there ain t much in the village we ain t always on the go an when a pretty face comes among us surely it s worth looking at an to pieces as but s that sharp on me when i any little thing might be about the lady that i m he s got out o the habit o when a face is a male or a female one which is often happens to when they fixed like old shrubs in one spot o ground now i should a said he d a bin glad to ear of new an as he likes it in the way flowers an why not in the way o but ain t like other folk he don t on with an the prettier they are the more he seems off but such opinions as entertained concerning his master he kept to himself and having once grasped the fact that any mention of miss s ways or miss s looks to rather than to entertain the john he avoided the subject altogether this course of action on his part if the truth be told was equally to who was in the curious mental condition of wishing to know what he declined to hear for the rest the village generally grew speedily accustomed to the presence of the mistress of the she had fulfilled her promise of paying a visit to and had sat with the old man in his cottage talking to him for the better part of two hours rumour asserted that she had even put the kettle on the fire for him and had made his tea himself was and beyond the fact that he held up his head with more dignity and showed a touch of more conscious superiority in his he did not give himself away by to any word of the interview that had taken place between himself and th squire s little one remarkable thing was noticed by the villagers and commented upon miss god s good man had now passed two sundays in their midst and had once attended church her servants were always there at morning service but she herself was absent this occasioned much whispering and head shaking in the little community and one evening the subject was openly discussed in the of the mother by a group of rustic whose knowledge of matters and political was by themselves considered profound mrs had started the conversation and mrs was well known to be a lady both pious and she presided over her husband s public with an air of meek resignation not with sorrowful protest she occasionally tasted the finer in the bar room and was often moved to gentle tears at the excellence of their she had a in the side and a long smooth pale yellow countenance from which the thin grey hair was well back from the temples in the frankly fashion affected by the provincial british matron she begun her remarks by that it was a very strange thing not to see miss at church on either of the sundays that had passed since her return very strange perhaps she was high f perhaps she had driven into to attend the service of the reverend francis perhaps she ain t done nothing of the growled a thick set farmer who with a of ale before him was at his pipe with as much zeal as a baby at its bottle ef you cares for my which m you she s neither low nor she s no seek if she b longed to a seek she wouldn t be on a book under the five sisters last sunday when the bells was a for church time i goes past er an i an she looks up like an she good nice day isn t it splendid day i an she went on an i went on a i then and i now she ain t no seek i example sighed mrs is better than it would be more decent if the lady showed herself in church as a lesson to others if she did so more lost sheep might follow chuckled from a comer of the room don t you yourself bout no lost sheep i sheep goes where there s to upon that s my an if there ain t no there ain t no sheep an them as on god s good man out of im all they can to em along wouldn t go to church no more than miss do if they didn t know a man e is to be relied on in times o trouble an a lar to the parish in sickness an in for richer for poorer for better for worse till death do im part miss don t want out of im as all we an she kin show er independence ef she likes to by away from church when she fancies an books instead of sermons there ain t no harm in that i m not so sure that i agree with you mr said a stout looking personage named the and general store dealer of the village a man who was renowned in the district for the and point of his observations at meetings and for the entirely original manner in which he used the english language public worship is a necessary evil it is a in vulgar without it the system of religious politics would fall into absolute and he his fist on the table with a that made his hearers jump at the last meeting i addressed in this division i said we must support the the aristocracy must bear them on their shoulders if your squire stays away from church he may be called a heathen with propriety though a liberal and why because he makes public exposure of himself	33
as a heathen negative he is bound to keep up the church in the community otherwise he runs straight on this outburst on the part of mr was listened to with respectful awe and admiration ay ay i said who as mine host stood in his shirt sleeves at the entrance of his bar surveying his customers and mentally counting up their would never do government would send the country to pieces you re right mr you re right i must be up i don t see no in goin to church said dan the little working tailor of the village i goes because i likes mr but if there was a man in the pulpit i didn t like i d stop away there s a deal too many wolves in sheep s clothing getting ordained in the service o the lord an i don t blame miss if so be she takes time to find out the sort o man mr is before under him as she can say prayers an read em too in her i o god s good man own room an study the bible all right without goin to church many folks as goes to church lar are downright mean and don t never read their at all they does as much harm as what mr calls though i don t myself to understand government language it bein too deep for me mr smiled and nodded as one who should say you do well my poor fellow to be humble in my presence i and buried his nose in his of ale s got hold o my red cow said the farmer who had spoken before for she s as as ever she was an if i lose her i loses a bit o my an that s what i an by no church goin seems to us in a bit o trouble an it ain t decent or christian like so it to pray to the almighty for the of a cow i asked if be right for the cow s as valuable to me as ever my wife was when she was alive if not more an he quite pleasant like well no i think it best not to make any sort of special prayer for the poor beast but just do all you can for it and leave the rest to providence a cow is worldly goods you see and we re not quite justified in praying to be allowed to keep our worldly goods ain t we i is that a fact he smiled and said it was so i thanked him and away but i ve been it over since an i to myself ef we ain t to pray for an our worldly goods ave we got to pray for oh mr ejaculated mrs almost it is not this world but the next that we must think of i we must pray for our souls i well i ain t got a soul i knows on an as for the next world if there ain t no cattle there i reckon i ll be out o work do you count on a bar in the country a loud went the round of the room and mrs gasped with horror oh she murmured addressing her who at once took up the argument you goes too fur you goes too fur i he said severely there ain t no bars nor carried on in the next world nor marrying nor in marriage we be all as the angels there a nice angel you ll make too mr i said farmer god s good man i i as he sent his to be we won t know you i again the laugh went round and mrs retired to her inner parlour there to recover from tiie shock occasioned to her religious feelings by the remarks of her too matter of fact customer meanwhile dan the tailor had again to the subject of miss there s one thing about her to church he said if so be as she did come it ud do us all good for she s real pleasant to look at i ve seen her a many times in the village ah so have two or three more men she s been in to see adam frost s children an she gave baby a bag o said an she s called at the but miss t in an saw her an was that struck that she t a to say so she tells us an miss she went to old s straight away an there she stayed so long she ain t called at our house yet which might you be a farmer with a slow grin your own or your s when we speaks in the we means not one but two rejoined with dignity an when i our i means myself an which miss ain t as yet left her card on he went up in a great one afternoon when he she was out he it i told im as ow i d seen her by on that mare of hers which they calls an away e run like a march are an he to the and down again an he like i ve done my by the lady he i ve left my card i that was days ago an there ain t been no return o the up to the present here he broke off and began to drink his ale as a small man entered the bar room with a brisk step and called for a glass of home lo ng on those assembled with a smile all of th n knew him as jim miss s groom well mates he said with a air of	33
familiarity all well and hearty as yourself mr replied acting as for the rest and personally serving him with i god s good man the foaming draught he had ordered which we likewise your lady is well my lady the best of health thank you i said with polite gravity and tossing off the contents of his glass he signified by an eloquent gesture and accompanying wink that he was good for another we was just a as you come in mr observed dan that we d none of us seen your lady at church yet on sundays she ain t of our persuasion as they or she goes into services smiled a superior smile and leaning easily against the bar crossed his legs and surveyed the company generally with a compassionate air i suppose it s quite a business down here goin to church eh he sort of excitement like only bit of fun you ve got helps to keep you all alive i that s the country way but bless you in town we re not taking any i looked up and mr loosened his collar and lifted his head as though preparing himself for another flow of eloquence farmer turned his slowly and brought his eyes to bear on the speaker how d ye make that out mr he demanded t ye the a mighty same in town as in country not a bit of it replied you re a long way behind the times mr you are indeed your pardon for the best people have given up the almighty altogether owing to recent scientific discoveries they ve n to the almighty dollar instead which no science can do away with and sundays aren t used any more for church going except among the middle class population they re just bridge days with our set bridge bridge every sunday s full of engagements to bridge right through the season that s cards ain t it dan just so harmless cards i rejoined only you can away a few thousands or so on em if you like mr here pushed aside his emptied ale glass and raised his fat head out of his stiff shirt are we to understand he began that miss is to this fashion of the lord s day straightened his figure suddenly now don t you put yourself out mr don t that s god s good man a good i he said in soothing tones there s no going on just at present when there is you can bring your best leg foremost and away for all you re worth my lady don t if that s what you mean though she s always with the set and likely so to remain but you keep up your spirits your be paid for au right i she don t run up no bills so don t you fear cards or no cards and as for the lord s day whatever that may be i could name to you the folks what does worse than play bridge on sundays and who are they why the and how does they do worse why by lies as fast as they can stick they says we re all going to heaven if we re good and they don t know nothing about it and we re all going to hell if we re bad and they don t know nothing about that neither i tell you as i told you at first in town we ve got beyond all that stuff we re just not taking any he paused and there was a deep silence while he drank off his second glass of ale the thoughts of every man present were apparently too deep for words you re a smart chap said at last breaking the mystic s u and rising to take his leave an i don t want to with ye for i you re about right in what you about sunday ways in town but i tell ye what young you ve got to ave a deal o patience an a deal o pity for they poor up in cities an never ain t got no room to look at the sky or see the wide fields with all the open to the sun no wonder they re so took up wi their over worms an an like as to ave forgot what the almighty is in the o the universe but it s jest like poor in a cell walks up an down up an down the stones in the wall with like an to their poor lonely selves as how many stones makes a square foot an so many square feet makes a square yard an on they goes a their mis able little round an their mis able little sums an all the time just outside the prison the flowers is all wild an the birds an the blue sky over it all with god behind it that s ow tis mr and looked into the of his cap as was his wont before he put it on his head believe all you say right enough an it don t put toe out i ve seen too much o to be shook off my old n the almighty for there s i god s good man do worm ain t sure of a rose or some kind o flower an fruit somewhere though m the poor blind thing don t know where to find it it s case o on an beyond our knowledge mr an that s tells us he don t bother us wi no nor nor he says we can feel god with us in our daily work an so we can if we ve a	33
enough to live in the parish of under that old liar i d a put my fist in his face fore i d a listened to a word he had to say i them s my sentiments mates i and you can read em how you like mr god s in heaven we know but there s churches on earth an we as to make sure whether there s men or devils inside of em fore we goes and in front of good night t ye with these somewhat remarks farmer strode out of the tap room whistling loudly to his dog as he reached the door the heavy tramp of his departing feet echoed along the outside lane and died away and glancing at the sheep faced clock in the bar that it was near hour all the company rose and began to take their leave church or no church miss s a real lady declared dan emphatically she may have her reasons an good ones too for not attending service but she ain t no heathen i m sure o that you cannot be sure of what you do not know said mr with a tight smile on his overcoat a heathen is a of the law and cannot enjoy the rights of the dan stared there ain t no of the law in away from church he said nobody s bound to go lords nor can t compel us mr shook his head and frowned darkly with the air of one who could a great mystery if he chose gods good man is a legal community he said and while powerless to bring to the christian conscience it in the of the heathen as her father s daughter be represented by the spirit and not by the of the i i still his brow into lines of the learned went his way gazing after him that man s lar lost down ere he observed he ha been in parliament ah so he ought i agreed dan where s there s fog he d a made it and where s there s no he d a made it less i he d a bin prime minister in no time he s just the sort they likes a good old for that work as has the o the people s brains an them s e a straight line as though crooked it keeps things quiet an yet like first up then down this way then that way an never certain but plenty o big words round that s all over it s in the shape of his ed he was bom like it i don t like his style myself but he d make a grand cab minister ay so he would i as he drew the little red curtains across the windows of the tap room and extinguished the hanging lamp easy rest ye dan i same to you mr responded the tailor cheerfully as he turned out into the cool sweet of the lane in which the mother stood i make bold to say that church or no church miss s bein at her own be a gain an a blessing to the village so returned and closing his door he barred it across for the night while dan full of the half poetic half philosophic thoughts which the subjects of religion and religious worship frequently excite in a more or less rustic mind slowly homeward during these days herself unconscious of the remarks passed upon her as the lady of the by her village neighbours had not been idle nor had she suffered much from depression of spirits though speaking she was having what she privately considered in her own mind rather a dull time to begin with everybody in the i god s good man neighbourhood that was anybody in the neighbourhood had called upon her and the antique table in the great hall with a snowy array of shaped bits of bearing names small and great names of old county families names of new gentry names of and their wives in profusion and one or two modest cards with the plain mr of the only young anywhere near for fifteen miles round nearly every man had a wife such a pity i commented when noting the fact one can never ask any of them to dinner without their most of the had paid duty visits at a time of the afternoon when she was always out over her own woods and fields and taking stock as she said of her own possessions but on one or two occasions she had been caught in and this was the case when sir accompanied by his daughter mr and mr were announced just at the apt and fitting hour of five o clock tea from the chair where she had thrown herself to read for a quiet half hour she set aside her book and received those important personages with the careless ease and amiable indifference which was a manner familiar to her and which invariably succeeded in making less graceful persons than she was feel awkward and unhappy about the management of their hands and feet with a smiling upward and downward glance she mastered sir s striking and jovial personality his stiffly carried upright form large lower chest close shaven red face and pleasantly clean white hair the very picture of a bone she thought he looks as if he had been boiled all over himself quite a nice well washed old man her observant eyes flashed over the form of with a sparkle of humour she noticed the careful carelessness of his attire the artistic set of his ruddy locks the eccentric cut of his trousers and the to	33
himself peculiar knot of his tie the poor thing wants to be something out of the common and can t quite manage it she mentally decided while she viewed with extreme the elegance affected by mr and the sleek smile practised by him for women only with which he admitted her existence to miss she offered a chair of dimensions amply provided with large down god s good man inviting her to sit down in it with a gentleness which implied kindly consideration for her years and for the fatigue she might possibly experience as a result of the drive over from hall the severe s red nose more visibly and between her thin lips she sharply her preference for a higher seat no cushions thank you i thereupon she selected the higher seat for herself in the shape of an old fashioned music stool without back or arm rest and sat upon it like a s clothed put up in a window for public inspection smiled she knew that kind of woman well and paying only the most casual attention to her for the rest of the time returned to her own place by the open windows and began to dispense the tea while sir opened conversation by to recall having met her some two or three years back he was not altogether in the best of the sight of his recently dismissed butler having upset his nerves he knew how servants talked who could tell what might not say in his new situation at s of his former experiences at hall and so it was with a somewhat heated countenance that sir endeavoured to allude to a former acquaintance with his hostess at a foreign office function oh no i don t think so said lazily dropping of sugar into the tea cups bo you take sugar i ought to ask i know such a number of men have the nowadays and they take i haven t any so sorry you do like sugar mr how nice of you i and she smiled none for you mr i thought not you miss no everybody else yes that s all right i the foreign office i think not sir i gave up going there long ago when i was quite young my aunt mrs always went you must have met her and taken her for me i always hated a foreign office crush such big bore one terribly you never see anybody you really want to know and the prime minister always looks tired to death his face is a study in several agonies two or three years ago oh no i don t think i was in london at that time and you were there were you she handed a cup of tea with a smile and a will you kindly pass it to who so accepted the task she imposed upon him of acting god s good man ae general waiter to the company that in hastening towards her he caught his foot in the trailing of her gown and nearly fell over the tea tray a thousand i he murmured himself with an effort so clumsy of me don t mention it i said placidly will you hand bread and butter to miss do you take hot cake sir sir s face had become considerably during this interval and as he spread his handkerchief out on one knee to receive the possible of tea from the cup he had begun to at somewhat he looked as he certainly felt rather at a loss what next to say he was not long in this state of however for a bright idea occurred to him causing a smile to spread among his loose cheek wrinkles i m sorry my friend the duke of has left me he said with pomp he would have been delighted er delighted to call with me to day who is he languidly again sir but managed to conceal his discomfiture in a fat laugh well my dear lady he is that is enough for him and for most people really oh well of course i suppose so i interrupted with an expressive smile which caused miss s form perched as it was on the high to quiver with spite and moved miss s neatly fingers to like a cat s claws in their kid with an insane desire to scratch the fair face on which that smile was reflected he is a charming fellow the duke charming charming i went on sir unconscious of the complex workings of thought in his elderly daughter s brain i and his great lord has also been staying with us but they left yesterday i m sorry to say they travelled up to london with lady elizabeth who paid us a visit of two or three days lady elizabeth echoed with a sudden ripple of laughter dear me i did you have her staying with you how very nice of you i she is such a terror mr one of his cat whiskers thoughtfully and put in his word lady elizabeth spoke of you miss several god s good man times he said in fact and he smiled she had a good deal to say she remembers meeting you in paris and if i mistake not also at on one occasion she was surprised to hear you were coming to live in this dull country place she said it would never suit you at all you were altogether too brilliant er he bowed and er charming i this complimentary phrase was spoken with the air of a beneficent giving a child a bon bon s glance swept over him carelessly much obliged to her i m sure she said i can quite	33
imagine the anxiety she felt concerning me so good of her i is she a great friend of yours mr looked slightly disconcerted well no he replied i have only during these last few days through sir had the pleasure of her acquaintance mr is not a society man i said sir with a chuckle he lives on the heights of and looks down with scorn on the sheep in the valleys below i he is a great author i indeed i and raised her delicately arched eyebrows with a faint movement of polite surprise but all authors are great nowadays aren t they there are no little ones left oh yes indeed and alas there are i exclaimed flourishing his emptied tea cup in the air before setting it back in its and the whole on a table before him i am one of them miss pray be merciful to me i the absurd attitude of appeal he assumed moved to a laugh well when you look like that i guess i will i she said not without a sense of liking for the quaint human creature who so willingly made himself ridiculous without being conscious of it what is your line in the small way verse i he replied with tragic emphasis verse which nobody reads verse which nobody wants verse which whenever it struggles into publication my friend here mr into with a hammer review of half a dozen lines in the heavier magazines verse my dear miss verse written to please myself though its results do not feed myself but what matter i am happy this village of st rest for example has exercised a spell of enchantment over me it has soothed my soul so much gods good man bo that i have taken a cottage in a wood how melodious that sounds i at the modest rent of a pound a week that much i can afford that much i will risk and on the air the water the nuts the the fruits the flowers i will live like a man and let the world go by he ran his fingers through his long hair it will be an experience i so new so fresh i miss and gave a short hard laugh i hope you ll enjoy yourself f she said but soon tire i told you at once when you said you had decided to spend the summer in this neighbourhood that you d regret it you ll find it very dull oh i don t think he will graciously he will be writing poetry all the time you see besides with you and sir as neighbours how can he feel dull won t you have some more tea no thank you and miss rose father we must be going you have not yet explained to miss the object of our visit true true i and sir got out of his chair with some difficulty time flies fast in such fascinating company i and he smiled we came my dear lady to ask you to dine with us on thursday next at hall no words could convey the which sir managed to into this simple sentence to dine at was or ought to be according to his idea the utmost height of human bliss and ambition we will invite some of our most distinguished neighbours to meet you there are a few of the old stock left this as if he were of the old stock himself i knew your father poor fellow and of course i remember seeing you as a child though you don t remember me ha ha i but i shall be delighted to welcome you under my roof thanks so much said but please let it be for another time will you i haven t a single evening disengaged between this and the end of june i so sorry i ll come over to tea some day with pleasure i i know dear old place quite famous too once in the days almost as famous as s itself let me see and she looked up at the ceiling there was a who fought against the and there was another who was prime minister or something of that kind then there was a sir thomas god s good man who wrote books and another who did some wonderful service for king james the first yes and there were some lovely women in the family too i suppose their portraits are all there yes i thought this as sir nodded a affirmative how things change don t they poor old so funny to think you live there oh yes i fu come over certainly i ll come over some day i thus murmuring polite bade her visitors adieu sir conquered an inclination to gasp for breath and say damn at the young lady s careless refusal of his invitation to dinner miss secretly rejoiced i m sure i don t want her at she said within herself nasty little insolent conceited thing i i believe her hair is and her complexion put a regular play i unconscious of the s amiable thoughts was holding out a hand to her good bye i she said so kind of you to come and see me i m sure you think i must be lonely here but i m not really i don t think i ever shall be because as soon as i have got the house quite in order i am going to ask a great many friends to stay with me in turn they will enjoy seeing the old place and country air is such a boon to london people good bye i	33
and here she turned to i m afraid i haven t read any of your books i anyway i expect they would be too deep for me wouldn t they lord has been good enough to express his liking for my poor efforts he replied with a slight covert i believe you know him oh quite well quite too well said without any but what he likes i always isn t it so i mustn t even try to read your works you mr and she looked up at that gentleman who hat in hand was drooping in a farewell attitude before her you are going to stop here all summer aren t you and in a cottage how delightful anywhere near the i am not so happy as to have found a on this side murmured with a look my humble hut is set some distance apart about a mile beyond the then your best neighbour will be the parson said gaily so improving to your morals god s good man possibly assented mr is not exactly like other there is something wonderfully attractive about him something wonderfully conceited and you mean i snapped out sir come we must be off i the horses are at the door can t keep them standing miss doesn t want to hear anything about the parson she ll find him out soon enough for herself he s an my dear lady take my word for it a and you ll never meet him at ha ha never sorry you can t dine on thursday never mind never mind another time good bye and with a slight further exchange of found herself relieved of her visitors of all the four alone looked back with a half appealing smile and received an encouraging little nod for his pains a nod which said yes you can come again if you like the wheels of the heavily down the drive and as the grating sound died away clear on the quiet air came the soft slow of the church bells ringing it was near sunset and sometimes held a short simple service of evening prayer at that hour leaning against the open window listened how pretty it is she said it must be the of the river that makes the tone of the bells so soft and mellow oh what an old that is and what a precious crew of friends he of who when he was a few years younger danced the skirt dance in women s clothes for forty pounds a night at a new york who all his mother s jewels to pay his losses at bridge and lady elizabeth who is such an abandoned old creature that her own married daughters won t know her oh dear and i believe the bone thinks they are quite good style that literary man was a most looking object a friend of s too which makes him all the more unpleasant and of course he will at once write off and say he has seen me and then and then dear me i wonder where sir these people up he doesn t like the parson here evidently a university and what a strong way of putting it very strong for such a clean looking old man a university and are you mr here smiling to god s good man herself she moved out the garden and called her dog to her side do you hear that our next door neighbour is a as well as a parson i isn t it dreadful i looked up at her with great loving brown eyes and his tail i believe he is and yet yet all the same i think i think as soon as a convenient opportunity presents itself ask him to dinner next day was up l and directly after breakfast die sent for mrs that good lady moved by the summons into sudden lest some duty had been forgotten or some of the household rules and left hastened to the inner library a small room communicating with the larger apartment and there found her mistress sitting on a low stool with her lap full of visiting cards which she was busily i and she looked up from her occupation with a mock tragic air fm dull i positively d u double li dull i mrs stared but merely said lor miss and folded her hands on her apron awaiting the next word tm dull dull dull i repeated springing up and tossing all the cards into a wide basket near at hand i don t know to do with myself i i ve got nobody to talk to nobody to play with nobody to sing to nobody to amuse me at all at all i i ve seen everything inside and outside the i ve visited the church i know the village i ve talked to dear old till he must be just tired of me he s certainly the man in the place and yesterday the came and finished me i m done i i throw up the i that s i there s nobody to see nowhere to go nothing to do it s awful i the time is out of joint o cursed spite i that s hamlet something must happen i and here she executed a playful pas around the old housekeeper there i isn t that pretty don t look so astonished you ll see ever so much worse than that by and bye i i am going to have company i am really i i shall fill the house get all the beds and all the swept out i i g all ask	33
heaps of people all the folks i can find i i want to be bad and mad myself i there s nobody bad or mad enough to keep me going down here look at god s good man these i and she among the visiting cards and selected a few listen i miss miss miss miss park it makes my tongue all rough and funny to read their names i they ve called and i suppose i shall have to call back but i don t want to what s the good i m sure i never shall get on with the we shall never never agree do you know them who are they mrs drew a long breath rolled up her eyes and began which the is a county ly miss some seven or eight miles from here as proud as proud to their sworn death on for of king john an miss proper she be on in years but she s a great lady an come november is to be seen the to the saddle wonderful for er size an time o life an miss she a lot o sick an bible not ere for our people won t stand it an ain t great on into private without owners for bible but she she s an into near every day which the s cart brings er ome to er own place they given up a to in an miss she works lovely with er needle an makes altar an for mr francis the church clergyman at he not bein married though myself i should say there t no chance for er bein frightful an a bit off in er an miss she do still play at bein a baby like she s the youngest an over forty yet quite a giddy in er way round her waist an if t for er cheeks in long like she wouldn t look so bad but they re all that proud that ll do that ll do i cried putting her hands to her ears no more please for the present i sufficient for the day is the thereof i who comes here and she read from another card mrs also a smaller which says mr more county family pride or what oh lor no miss s only the of said mrs casually he s got the biggest in the town but people remembers im when he god s good man was a very shabby lot indeed an awful shabby lot he ain t nobody miss he s just got a bit o money which makes the sort wag tails for im but it s his cheek to call ere at all sir bein in the bone line as im up to dine now an just to keep in with im like for he s a nasty temper an his wife s got the longest and tongue in all the neighbourhood but you needn t take up wi them miss they ain t in your line which some is gentlemen an ain t your pa wouldn t never know his pa then that s settled i said with a sigh of relief depart into the of forgotten i and she tossed the cards aside here are the names i small remember them all right and have a tendency to raise of memory on the brain what is this neat looking little bit of the john yes i he called two or three days ago when i was out mrs a of meaning but said nothing i ve not been to church yet went on i dare say he thinks me quite a dreadful person but i hate going to church it s so stupid so and oh i such a waste of time i mrs still held her peace gave her a little side glance and noted a certain and wonder in the rosy wrinkled face which was not without its own pathos i suppose everybody about here goes to church at least once on sundays pursued don t they them as likes mr goes answered mrs promptly then as don t stops away sir used to attend ere when the was but ruin an e ad a tin roof put over it e was that proud o the tin roof you d a thought twas made o pure gold an he was just wild when mr pulled it all off an built up the walls an roof again as they should be all at is own expense an he went away from the place for sheer spite like an stayed abroad a whole year an when e come back again e never wouldn t go nigh it an now e service at church bam we calls it for tain t but a bam which mr keeps as with a bit an six candles though it s the mis place ye ever set eyes on an e do look a caution with what e calls a down over is back which is a back as fat as lord forgive me for it but god s good man sir e be that set against mr he ll rather say is prayers in a pig with a pig for the minister than in our church since it s been all restored an then as i told you just now miss the goes to where they with the lord be merciful to us mis able an with candles so our is mostly filled wi the village folks farmer bodies an like there ain t no grand people what comes though we don t miss em for e don t let us want for an when there s a man out o work or a woman sick or a child what s a	33
bit an he s ready to with all e as an welcome doctor s often an all the medicine bills on besides ah e s a rare good sort is an so you d say miss if ever you took on your mind to go and hear im preach an studied is ways for a bit as an asked bout im in the village for e s fair an open as the day an ain t got no sly tricks in im he s just a man an a good one an that s as rare a thing to find in this world as a di in a wash tub an so bold miss if you d go to church next sunday interrupted her by a little gesture i can t i she said but with great gentleness i know it s the right and proper thing for me to do in the country if i wish to stand well with my neighbours but i can t i i don t believe in it and i won t pretend that i believe i poor mrs felt a sudden choking in her throat and her face grew red and pale by turns miss the old squire s daughter was what a heathen an an oh surely it was not possible it could not be she would not accept the idea that a creature so dainty and pretty so fair and could be cast adrift on the darkness of life without any trust in the saving grace of the christian faith i limited as were mrs s powers of intelligence she was conscious enough that there would be something sweet and strong lost out of the world which nothing could replace were the message of christ withdrawn from it the perplexity of her thoughts was reflected on her countenance and watching her smiled a little sadly you mustn t think i don t believe in god she said slowly i do i but i can t agree with all churches teach about him they make him out to be a cruel jealous and being god s good man mr put in mrs quickly and i like to think of him as all love and pity and goodness went on not her and i don t say prayers because i think he knows what is best for me without my do you understand so it s really no us my going to church unless just out of curiosity and perhaps i will some day do that i ll see about it i but i must know mr a little better first i must find out for myself what kind of a man he is before i make up my mind t endure such a as listening to a sermon i simply sermons i i suppose i must have had too many of them when i was a child surely you remember that i used to be taken into to church mrs nodded emphatically in the affirmative yes i because when father was alive the church here was only a ruin and i used to go to sleep over the sermons always and once i fell off my seat and had to be carried out it was dreadful i now uncle never went to church nor aunt so i ve quite got out of the way of going nobody is very particular about it in paris or london you see but perhaps i ll try and hear mr preach just once and i ll tell you then what i think about it ill put his card on the to remind me i and she suited the action to the word mrs gazing at her in a kind of mild it seemed such a very odd thing to stick up a clergyman s card as a to go to church just once some sunday meanwhile continued now you must begin to be busy i you must prepare the for the reception of all sorts of people small and great i feel that the time has come for company company i and in the first place i m going to send for she s my pet genius and i m paying the cost of her musical education in paris she s an orphan like me she s all alone in the world like me and we re devoted to each other she s only a child just over fourteen but she s simply a wonder i the most wonderful musical wonder in the world i and she has a perfectly marvellous voice her master says that when she is sixteen she will have at her feet i i there are only a few but they ll all be in the dust before her i you must prepare some pretty rooms for her those two at the top of the house that look right over the lawn and woods and make everything as as you can put the finishing touches and i must send i god s good man to london for a grand piano there s only the dear old in the drawing room it s sweet to sing to and will love it but she must have a glorious grand as well i shall wire to her to day i know she ll come at once she will arrive direct from paris let me see and she paused when can she arrive this is friday yes probably she will arrive here sunday or monday morning so you can get everything ready very well miss and mrs with the usual dip of respectful submission to her mistress was about to withdraw when called her back and handed over to her care the basket	33
full of visiting cards put them all by she said when comes we u go through them carefully together and discuss what to eat drink and avoid till then i shall blush unseen wasting my sweetness on the desert air time enough and to spare for making the acquaintance of the county who was it that said never know your neighbours i forget but he was a wise man anyway mrs dipped a second time in silence and was then allowed to depart on her various household duties good woman s thoughts were somewhat and most fervently did she long to send for her trusted adviser and chief or else go to him herself and ask him what he thought concerning the non church going tendencies of her mistress was she altogether a lost sheep was there no hope for her entrance into the heavenly fold which i can t and won t believe she s wicked said mrs to herself with that sweet face an eyes she couldn t be i m tis bad example er aunt no religion as an er uncle mr was never no great shakes in is young days if all the truth was told well well i the lord e knows is own an my is he ain t a goin to do without miss for it s again turn again why will ee die sort of thing with him an he don t give out in is patience glad she s goin to ave a friend to stay with er that ll do er good and her up an the friend ll want to go to church an miss go with her an once they to be all right for is voice do draw you up into a little bit o heaven somehow whether ye likes it or not an if miss once ears im she ll be wanting to ear im again so it s best to leave it all in the lord s which makes the hill straight an the valleys crooked an knows god s good man what s good for both man and beast miss ain t goin to miss the way the truth an the life i m sure o that i thus mrs gravely while herself unaware of the manner in which her immortal were being by the old housekeeper put on her hat and ran gaily across the lawn her great dog bounding at her side making for the usual short cut across the fields to the village arrived there she went straight to the post office a curious little sided half cottage with a projecting window wherein through the dusty close panes could be various strange such as of drops balls and sugar likewise one or two stray some looking cakes a handful or so of old nuts and of from shining of tin foil while a of somebody s choice tea was suspended over the whole collection like a flag of triumph ti e owner of this interesting stock and the of st was a quaint looking little woman very rosy very round very important in her manner very brisk and bright with her eyes but very slow with her fingers which i gets the so bad in my joints she was wont to say that i often wonders ow i knows from forms an register papers from an if you them things wrong never you i ah you ll never get into no trouble with her were wont to assure her for you be as as a compliment which mrs accepted without feeling it to be no more than her just due she was however in spite of her methods always a little worried when anything out of the ordinary occurred and she began to feel slightly directly she saw swing open her garden gate she had already during the last few days been at some trouble to various which the lady of the had sent down by for immediate despatch such as one to a certain lord which had run as follows no time to reply to your letter li love with pigs and poultry it ts pigs and poultry ain t it she had asked anxiously cf after studying the message for a considerable god s good man time through her and gravely studying it too had replied it is undoubtedly pigs and poultry and it is in love you think pursued mrs with perplexity her brow it is certainly in love rejoined and the faintest suggestion of a wink affected his left thereupon the was sent through to on its way to london though not without serious in mrs s mind as to whether it might not be returned with a as to its and now when herself entered the office and said good morning some foreign forms please i mrs felt that the hour was come when her powers of intelligence were about to be tried to the utmost and she accordingly began to experience vague of uneasiness foreign forms miss is it for oh no only for paris and while the old lady nervously in her official drawer glanced around the little business establishment with amused interest she had a keen eye for small details and she noticed with humorous appreciation mrs s pink sun bonnet hanging beside the post office bank and a half side of bacon suspended from the ceiling apparently for purposes immediately above the apparatus after a little delay the required pale yellow foreign and forms were found and mrs carefully them out and set them on her narrow office counter will you have a pencil or pen and ink miss she pen and ink please replied the old breathed a sigh of relief it would be easier to make out anything at all strange and uncommon in pen and ink than in pencil marks which had	33
a trick of rubbing leaning lightly against the counter wrote in a clear round hand miss come to me at once shall want you all summer have start to morrow she pushed this over to mrs who noting that she was writing another took time to carefully read god s good man and spell over every word and mastered it all without difficulty meanwhile prepared her second message thus louis paris je desire et arrive pent a it s rather long she said thoughtfully as she finished it but for it is necessary to explain fully i hope you can make it out poor mrs quivered with inward agitation as she took the terrible in hand and made a brave effort to rise to the occasion yes miss she stammered louis g i g u e that s right yes at the paris no no said with a little laugh not t o i r e the place where they study music oh yes i and mrs tried to smile as she fixed her spectacles more firmly on her nose and began to murmur slowly je desire d e oh yes desire q u e yes that s all right an e to pass yes now let me wait a minute one minute miss if you please i e stroke across the e t and e stroke across the e s eyebrows went up in pretty perplexity oh dear fm afraid you won t be able to get it right that way she said i had better write it in english why here s mr this as she saw the clergyman s tall figure entering mrs s tiny garden mr and as he raised his hat she smiled graciously i want to send off a french and fm afraid it s rather difficult a glance at mrs explained the rest and n s eyes perhaps i can be of some use miss he said nodded and he walked into the little office let me send off those for you mrs he said you know you often allow me to amuse myself in that way i haven t touched the instrument for a month at least and am getting quite out of practice may i come in i god s good man mrs s face shone with relief and gladness well now mr if it isn t a real that you happened to look in this i she exclaimed for now there won t be no delay not but what i knew a bit o french as a an i d ave made my way to spell it out somehow no matter how slow but there you re that handy that t take no time an miss will be sure of her message gone straight off from here correct an if they makes mistakes at t be my fault while she thus ran on was handling the apparatus his back was turned to but he felt her eyes upon him as indeed they were and there was a slight flush of colour in his cheeks as he presently looked round and said may i have the there are two both for paris replied handing him the filled up forms one is quite easy in english and the other quite difficult in french he laughed let me see if i can make it out correctly thereupon he read aloud louis paris je desire i et arrive pent a is that right s eyes opened a little more widely like blue flowers to the sun this country clergyman s of french was perfect more perfect than her own trained accent mrs clasped her red hands in a silent ecstasy of admiration knew everything is it right repeated gave a little start oh i beg your pardon yes quite right thank you ever so much click click click click the apparatus was at work and the was entirely engrossed in his business mrs stood respectfully dumb and motionless watching him leaning against the ledge of the office counter watched him too she took quiet observation of the well poised head covered with its rich brown grey waving locks of hair the broad shoulders the white firm muscular hands that worked the instrument and she was conscious of the impression of authority order knowledge and self possession which seemed to have come into the little office with him and to have created quite o god s good man a new atmosphere outside in the small garden among and early sat on his huge in lion like dignity at the sun while s executed absurd but entirely friendly in front of him now down on two with nose to ground and eyes sideways now an excited tail with excessive violence to and a desire for and anon giving a short of suppressed feeling to all of which approaches gave no other response than a vast and meditative stare the monotonous click click click continued now stopping for a second then going on more rapidly again till mary began to feel quite impatient she found something at last in the contemplation of the back of s it was too well shaped she decided she could discover no fault in it humming a tune carelessly under her breath she turned towards mrs s small department and feigned to be absorbed in an admiring survey of balls and certain glistening squares of white substance on a corner shelf commended themselves to her notice as specimens of stale wherein the represented a remote antiquity and a mass of yellow matter laid out in on blue paper and marked one penny per claimed attention as a certain peculiar to st rest which was	33
best eaten in a highly condition a dozen or so of wrinkled apples which to judge by their and worn must have been several old kept melancholy companionship with of the choice tea whereof the was displayed in the window and was just about wondering whether she would or could buy anything out of the collection when the click click click stopped abruptly and stepped forth from the interior den of the post office all right miss he said your are sent correctly as far as anyhow and there is one there who is acquainted with the french language they will correctly from london i shouldn t like to say i we are a singular nation and one of our is that we scorn to know the language of our nearest neighbours she smiled up at him and as his glance met hers he was taken as it were by the beauty and frank god s good man innocence of the grave dark blue eyes that shone so serenely into his own thank you so very very much you have been most kind and with a swift of her white eyelids she veiled those of the soul beneath a concealing fringe of long golden brown lashes it s quite a new experience to find a clergyman able and willing to be a telegraph clerk as well i so useful isn t it in a village like this it is rejoined gaily and after all there s not much use in being a minister unless one can practically succeed in the art of to every sort of demand made upon one s i even to miss s needs should she require anything from the preservation of trees to the sending of that st rest can provide again glanced at him and again a little smile lifted the comers of her mouth i must pay for the she said abruptly mrs yes miss written it all down murmured mrs nervously it s right mr isn t it if you would be so good as to look at it bein a word it do make it different like an m there might be a mistake glanced over the scrap of paper on which she had her rough figures out i declare mrs he said merrily dear whatever is going to become of you eh to cheat yourself wouldn t matter nobody minds thai but to do the british government out of would be a dreadful thing now if i had not seen this you would have been what is called short this evening in making up accounts here he handed the corrected paper to i think you wiu find that right opened her purse and paid the amount and mrs in giving her change for a sovereign included among the a bright new piece with a hole in it this little bit of silver held it up in front of s eyes triumphantly luck she exclaimed that s for you it s a reward for operations will you be grateful if i give it to you he laughed profoundly it shall be my d s o i o god s good man then there you are i and she placed the tiny coin in the of the hand he held out to receive it the is worthy of his now you can never go about like some grumbling and saying you work for no pay her eyes sparkled what shall we do next oh i know let s buy some drops i mrs stared and smiled or drops continued glancing at the various of i see the real old fashioned pink ones up there at one end and at the other do you like them or brandy balls i think the drops carry one back to the age of ten most quickly but which do you prefer tried to look serious but could not succeed laughter all over his face arid he began to feel extremely young well really miss he began there i know what you are going to say exclaimed you are going to tell me that it would never do for a clergyman to be seen drops in his own parish understand but do ever so much worse than that sometimes they do really two of drops for me mrs please i and one of brandy balls mrs out of her government office and came to the counter to dispense these they k to the jar so said watching her thoughtfully they always did i remember as a child seeing a man put his finger in to them don t put your finger in mrs take a bit of wood an old or something oh they re coming out all right that s it and she one of the drops into her mouth they are really very good better than french so much more innocent and refreshing here she took possession of the little paper bags which mrs had filled with the sweets thank you mrs if any answers to my come from paris please send them up to the at once good morning good morning miss and mrs pulled the door of her double establishment wider open to let the young lady pass out which she did a smile and nod following her rose and paced after his mistress trotting meekly at the rear and god s good man they all went forth from the s garden into the road where pausing raised his hat in farewell oh are you going won t you walk with me as far as your own certainly if you wish it he answered with a slight touch of embarrassment i thought perhaps tou thought perhaps what laughed glancing up at him that i was going to make you eat drops against your will not i wouldn t be so	33
rude but i really thought i ought to buy something from mrs she was so worried poor old dear till you came in then she looked as happy as though she saw a vision of angels she s a perfect picture with her funny old shawl and spectacles and red and do you know all the time you were working the telegraph you were under the fragrant shadow of a big piece of bacon which was positively over your head i couldn t you smell it s eyes there was certainly a fine in the air he said but it seemed to me no more than the customary perfume common to mrs t apple s surroundings i it was new to you i a country clergyman is perhaps the only human being who has to himself to bacon as the prevailing sweetness of cottage laughed she had a pretty laugh silver clear and joyous without fancy your being so clever as to be able to send off i she exclaimed what an accomplishment for a don t you want to know all about the messages you sent who the persons are and what i have to do with them not in the least answered john smiling are you not of a curious disposition i never care about other people s business he said meeting her eyes with friendly frankness i have enough to do to attend to my own then you are positively declared and absolutely you are really every creature on earth wants to find out all the ins and of every other two legged creature for if this were not the case wars would be at an end and the wicked cease from troubling and the weary be at rest so just because you don t want to know about my two friends in paris i m going to tell you louis is the greatest teacher of singing there is god s good man and is his pupil a perfectly wonderful little girl with a marvellous compass of voice whose training and education i am paying for i want her with me here and i have sent for her can come on if he thinks it necessary to give her a few lessons during the summer but of course she is not to sing in public until she is sixteen she is only fourteen now listened in silence he was looking at his companion sideways and noting the delicate ebb and flow of the rose tint in her cheeks the bright of gold in the otherwise brown hair and the light of her dainty rounded figure as she stepped along beside him with an almost grace and swiftness she was the child of a went on her mother sold her for ten pounds yes wasn t it dreadful this as john s face expressed surprise but it is true i you shall hear all the story some day it is quite a little romance and she is so clever you would think her ever so much older than she is to hear her talk sometimes she is rather blunt and people get offended with her but she is true oh so true she wouldn t do a mean action for the world i she is just devoted to me and that is perhaps why i am devoted to her because after all it s a great thing to be loved isn t it it is indeed replied john mechanically beginning to feel a little dazed under the influence of ihe bright eyes animated face smiling lips and clear sweet voice it ought to be the best of all things it ought to be and it declared emphatically oh what a lovely bush of and she hastened on a few steps in order to look more closely at the admired blossoms which were swaying in the light breeze over the top of a thick green hedge why it must be growing in your garden yes it of course it is this is your gate may i come in she paused her hand on the latch and for a moment hesitated a wave of colour swept up to his brows he was conscious of a struggling desire to refuse her request united to a still more earnest craving to grant it she looked at him wistfully smiling may i come in she repeated he advanced and opened the gate standing aside for her to pass of course you may he said gently and welcome xiv tow it happened that was at that moment engaged in training some long branches of honey across the walls and being half way up a ladder for the purpose the surprise he experienced at seeing and miss enter the garden together and walk slowly side by side across the lawn was so excessive that in his head round to convince himself that it was not a vision but a reality he nearly lost his balance steady i he muttered addressing the ladder which for a second swayed beneath him i this ain t no ocean with they calls an swell i so the ice ave broke ave it she don t like an he don t like ladies as both come to peaceful like with one another over the blessed green grass all on a fine may i which it s nigh on june now an no sign o the weather temper well well i wonders won t never cease it s true but i d as soon a thought o my old a among her cream as that would a let miss inside this ere gate so easy like an he a but there all he s on in years an she s ever so much younger than he is an i he	33
s made up his mind to treat er kind like as her father which he should do bein o the village an as for the pretty face of er he s not the man to look at it more n once an then he couldn t tell you it s like he his water lilies n females ah an i bet he d give ten pound for a new specimen of a flower when he wouldn t lay out a on a new specimen of a woman here pausing in his reflections he again looked cautiously round from his high point of view on the ladder and saw break off a spray of white from one bush of a very special kind near the edge of the lawn and give it to miss well now that do beat me altogether i he ejaculated under his breath if he s told me once he s told me a times that he won t ave no blossoms broke off that bush on no account j god s good man an there he is a of it i that s a kind of thing which do make me feel that men is a poor feeble minded lot it do now i but feeble minded or not john had nevertheless gathered the choice flower and moreover had found a certain pleasure in giving it to his fair companion who its delicious with an smile what a dear old house you have i she said glancing up at the crossed projecting and quaint windows set like eyes in the roof had no idea that it was so pretty i and the garden is perfectly lovely it is so very artistic it looks like a woman s dream of a garden rather than a man s john smiled you think women more artistic than men he in the line yes she replied especially where flowers are concerned if one leaves the planning of a garden entirely to a man he is sure to make it too stiff and he will not allow nature to have her own way in the least little bit in fact and she laughed i don t think men as a rule like to let anything or anybody have their own way except themselves i the smile still lingered kindly round the comers of s mouth possibly you may be right he said i almost believe you are men are selfish much more selfish than women nature made them so in the first instance and our methods of education and training all tend to our natural bent but here he paused and looked at her thoughtfully i am not sure that absolute would be a wise or strong trait in the character of a man you see the first thing he has to do in this world is to earn the right to live and if he were always politely out of everybody else s way and allowing himself to be to one side in an unselfish desire to let others get to the front he would scarcely be able to hold his own in any profession and all those dependent upon his efforts would suffer so that his might become the very worst kind of selfishness in the end don t you think so well yes perhaps in that way it might hesitated with a faint blush i ought not to judge anyone i know but oh dear i the men one meets in town the society men with their airs of conceit and condescension their of intellect their preference for god s good man cigars and bridge to anything else the sun their intensely absorbed love of personal ease and their perfectly absurd confidence in their own supreme wisdom these are the creatures that make one doubt the worth of the rest of their sex altogether but there are creatures on both sides said quietly just as there are the men you speak of so there are women of the same useless and character is it not so she looked up at him and laughed why yes of course i she frankly admitted i guess i won t argue with you on the six of one and half dozen of the other i but it s just as natural for women to men as for men to nowadays long ago in the lovely once upon a time fairy period the habit of criticism doesn t appear to have developed strongly in either sex the men were and tender the women and devoted i think it must have been perfectly charming to have lived then i it is all so different now i fortunately it is said john with a sparkle in his eyes i am sure you would not have liked that once upon a time fairy period as you call it at all miss i poets and may tell us that the men were and tender but plain fact us that they were very rough who used to shut up their ladies in gloomy castles where very little light and air could penetrate and the and devoted ladies in their turn made very short work of the whole business by either dying of their own grief and ill treatment or else getting killed in cold blood by order of their lords and masters why one of the finest proofs of an improvement in our is the freedom of thought and action given to women in the present day personally speaking i admit to a great fondness for old fashioned ways and particularly for old fashioned manners but i cannot shut my mind to the fact that for centuries women have been by men in every possible way from all chance of developing	33
the great powers of intelligence they possess and it is certainly time the opposition to their advancement should cease of course being a man myself and he smiled i that in my heart of hearts i like the type of woman i first learned to know and love best my mother she had the early ways they were very simple but also very sweet god s good man he broke off and for a moment or two they paced the lawn in silence i suppose you live all alone here asked suddenly yes quite alone and are you happy i am content i understand i and she looked at him somewhat earnestly happy is a word that should seldom be used i think it is only at the possible moments that one can feel true happiness you are too young to say that he rejoined gently all your life is before you the greater part of mine lies behind me again she glanced at him somewhat timidly mr she began afraid i suppose i you think john caught the appealing flash of the blue eyes and wondering what she was going to say she played with the pray of he had given her and for a moment seemed to lost her self possession i am quite sure she went on hurriedly that you i mean i m afraid you haven t a very good opinion of me because i don t go to church he looked at her smiling a little don t you go to church he asked i didn t know it i here was a surprise for the lady of the the clergyman of her own parish a man who by all accepted rule and precedent ought to have been after her at once asking for to this fund and that fund for her position and begging for her name and support liad not even noticed her absence from divine service on sundays she did not know whether to be relieved or such indifference to her actions her feminine pride and yet his tone was very kind and courteous noting the colour coming and going en her face he spoke again i never interfere i er with my miss he said to attend church or stay away from church is a matter of conscience with each individual and must be left to individual choice i should be th last person in the world to entertain a bad opinion of anyone simply because he or she never went to church that would bo foolish indeed some of the noblest and best men in to day never go to church but they are none the less god s good man noble and good they have their reasons of conscience for non committing themselves to accepted forms of faith and it often turns out that they are more truly christian and more purely religious than the most constant church that ever lived gave a little sigh of sudden relief ah you are a broad minded i she said i am glad very glad because you have no doubt followed the of modern thought and you must have read all the in the magazines and in the books that are written on such subjects and you can understand how difficult it is to a person like myself to decide what is right when so many of the wisest and most educated men agree to differ stopped abruptly in his walk please do not mistake me miss he said gravely and with emphasis i should be sorry if you gathered fl wrong opinion of me at the outset of our acquaintance as your minister i feel that i ought to make my position clear to you you say that i have probably followed the of modem thought and i presume that you mean the of modem thought in religious matters now i have not followed it but i have patiently studied it and find it in all respects deplorable and disastrous at the same time i would not force the high truths of religion on any person nor would i step out of my way to ask anyone to attend church if he or she did not feel inclined to do so and why because i fully admit the and coldness of the church in the present day and i know that there are many ministers of the gospel who do not attract so much as they i am not self as to dream that i a mere country parson can succeed in drawing souls to christ when so many men of my order more gifted than i have failed and continue to fail but i wish you quite frankly to understand that the of modem thought does not affect the vows i took at my that i do not preach one thing and think another and that whatever my faults and may be i most earnestly endeavour to impress the minds oi all those men and women who are committed to my care with the beauty truth and saving grace of the christian faith was silent she appeared to be looking at the in the grass i hope he continued quietly you will forgive this rather serious talk of mine but when you spoke of the of modem thought it seemed necessary to me to let you know i god s good man at once and that i am not with it that i do not belong to the modem school to be a christian minister i try to be one very poorly and i know but still i try raised her eyes there was a on her long lashes as of tears please forgive me she said simply and thank you for speaking as	33
you have done i i shall always remember it and honour you for it i hope we shall be friends she put the words as a and half timidly held out her little hand he took it at once and pressed it cordially indeed i am sure we shall i he said heartily and the smile that made his face more than ordinarily handsome lit up his eyes and showed a depth of sincerity and kindly feeling reflected straight from his honest soul a sudden blush swept over s cheeks and she gently withdrew her hand from his clasp a silence fell between them and when they broke the spell it was by a casual comment respecting the wealth of apple blossoms that were making the trees around th m white with their snow st best is a veritable orchard when the season it said it is one of the best fruit growing corners in england at s for instance the cherry crop is finer than can be gathered on the same of ground in did you know that laughed no i i know absolutely nothing about my own home mr and i am perfectly aware that i ought to be ashamed of my ignorance i am ashamed of it i going to try and the error of my ways as fast as i can when comes to stay with me she will help me she s ever so much more sensible than i am she s a genius do not always get the credit of being sensible do they john smiling are they not supposed to be creatures of impulse in the air and wholly exactly so she replied that is the commonplace opinion commonplace people entertain of them yet the commonplace people owe everything they enjoy in art literature and science to the of genius and of genius alone as for she is the most practical little person possible she began to earn her living at the age of eleven god s good man and has it in the world more severely than many a man but she keeps her dreams and those who wish her well will pray that she may always keep them said for to lose one s illusions is to lose the world the world may be an illusion said drawing near the garden gate and leaning upon it for a moment as she glanced up at him with a vague sadness in her eyes we never know i have often felt that it is only a pretty little with a very dark background behind it i he was silent looking at her for the first time he caught himself noticing her dress it was of simple pale blue linen relieved with white embroidered lawn and in its cool fresh clean appearance was in keeping with the clear bright day a plain straw garden hat tied across the crown and under the chin with a strip of soft blue ribbon to match the linen gown was the finish to this fashionable young woman s and though it was infinitely becoming to the fair skin eyes and gold brown hair of its it did not suggest undue extravagance or a paris mode and while he yet almost unconsciously studied the picture she made resting one arm lightly across his garden gate she lifted the latch suddenly and swung it open good bye and she nodded thank you so much for letting me see your lovely garden i as soon as arrives you must come and see her you will won t you i shall be most happy he murmured she will be so interested to hear how you sent her my continued and too poor old he is sure to come over here some time during the summer he is such a quaint person i think you will like him good bye good bye for the present i said john with a slight note of appeal in his voice which was not lost wholly upon the air alone for turned her head back towards him with a laugh oh of course only for the present we are really next door neighbours and i m afraid we can t escape each other unless we each play in separate but i promise not to bore you with my presence very often i she waved the spray of white he had given her in farewell and calling her dog to her side passed down the i god s good man village road lightly like a blue flower drifting with the may breeze and was soon out of sight closed the gate after her with careful and returned across the lawn to his favourite seat under his favourite apple tree followed him the ground in the trail of the departed who doubtless to the smaller animal s mind represented a sort of monarch who the well meaning attentions of his having finished his task of training the vines across the walls of the descended his ladder making as much noise as he could about it and adding a sudden troublesome cough which would he considered probably excite his master s sympathy and instant attention but paid no heed he was apparently busy with his watch chain waited a moment and then unable any longer to control his curiosity seized his ladder and deliberately carried it across the lawn though he knew that that was not the proper way to the tool shed where it was kept halting close to the seat under the apple tree he said ton red s on fine it be as full o bud as a o peas ay indeed i murmured that s all right i paused no further word however was vouchsafed to him and he knew by experience that such silence implied his master s wish to be left alone with an	33
almost gravity he surveyed the reverend john s bent head and with another glance ascertained the nature of the occupation on which his fingers were engaged whereupon his face expressed the amazement his ladder he went his way and once out of gave vent to a long low whistle it do beat me he said one leg vehement r it do beat me altogether it do now i i ain t no sort an bad ain t my but i feel like a bet or a swear when i sees a sensible man like a fool of i if ain t gone all on a if i knows s come to im tain t miss tain t no one nor i knows on but i m if he t under that tree like a great a a mis able bit to is watch chain i did anyone ever ear the like i a bit with a in it to think of a man like that god s good man to the sup o maids an a bit o silver it do make me wild i it do now and with disdain almost threw his ladder into the tool shed thereby a couple of who had found their way within and who now flew out with a of white wings that like pearl in the sunlight as they spread upwards and away into the sky a bit with a in it i he repeated mechanically watching the birds of peace in their flight an on his watch chain too along wi the gold cross he wears there an which folks was the last thing wore by is dead sister s gone wrong with must a gone wrong a bit means a woman in it but tain t that way wi for sure there s a deeper than the in the a ain t got no bottom to it so fur as i can see vm just fair with that an altogether if i ain t the john meanwhile seated under his of apple blossoms had succeeded in the bit to his chain in such a manner that it should not come into notice with the mere action of pulling his watch he could not for the life of him have explained had he been asked the reason why he had determined to thus privately wear it on his own person to himself he said he fancied it and why should not have fancies like other people why should they not wear bits if they liked no objection either moral legal or religious could surely be raised to such a course of and john actually whistled a tune as he slipped back his chain with its new attached into his waistcoat pocket and surveyed his garden surroundings with a placid smile his interview with miss had not been an unpleasant experience by any means he liked her better than when he had first seen her on the morning of meeting under the boughs of the threatened five sister he could now as he thought her character and temperament correctly with all the wonderful and not to be contradicted logic of a man she was charming and she knew her charm she was graceful and she was aware of her grace she was bright and intelligent in the prettily surface way of women she evidently possessed a kind heart and she seemed thoughtful of other people s feelings she had a sweet voice and a delightfully musical laugh god s good man and and that was about all it was not much strictly x yet he found himself considerably interested in weighing the and of her nature and wondering how she had managed to retain in the worldly and social surroundings to which she had been so long accustomed the child like of her manner and the simple frankness of her speech of course it may be all put on he reflected though with a touch of at the bare one can never tell i it seemed natural and it would hardly be worth her while to act a part for the benefit of an old like myself i think she is genuine i hope at any rate i will believe she is till she proves herself otherwise of course the of modern thought has touched her the among the countless cruel deeds of is to murder the christ in women for as woman s purity first brought the divine master into the world so must woman s purity still keep him here with us else we men are lost lost through the sins not only of our fathers but chiefly of our mothers that same evening received a prompt reply to one of the which had sent off for her in the morning it was brief and to the point and only ran coming a message which mrs had no difficulty in and which she sent up to the post haste as soon as it arrived the telegraph boy who conveyed it got sixpence for himself as a reward for the extra speed he had put on in running all the way from the village to the house thereby the who being in figure was somewhat heavily up in the same direction with the last delivery of letters for the day miss s were generally very numerous but on this occasion there was only one letter for her one neatly addressed with a small finely engraved crest on the of the envelope surveyed that envelope and crest with she had seen too many of the same kind the smile that brightened her face when she read s faded altogether into an expression of cold weariness as with a small silver paper knife she slowly the closed edges of the unwelcome and glanced indifferently at its contents	33
it ran as follows my dear miss i feel sure you do not the great pain you are on your aunt as well as on god s good man myself by declining to answer our letters except by pray remember that we are quite in the dark as to the state of your health your surroundings and your general your sudden departure from town was if you will permit me to say so a most unwise impulse causing as it has done the greatest i in your own social circle and among your hosts of friends i have done my best to smooth matters over by assuring all that certain matters on your country estate required your personal but rumour as you know has many tongues which are not likely to be easily silenced tour aunt was much surprised and disturbed to receive from you a box of s feathers without a iy word from yourself she has no doubt you meant the gift kindly but was not the manner of giving somewhat strange let me say eccentric i hope you will allow me to point out to you that nothing is more fatal to a woman in good society than to attain any sort of reputation for l may take the liberty of saying this to you as an old friend and as one who still holds persistently to the dear expectation despite much of being able soon to call you by a closer name than mere friendship allows the between your aunt and yourself should surely be a matter of slight duration and not sufficient in any case to warrant your rash decision to altogether resign the protection and kindly which she on her part has exercised over you for so many years i cannot too strongly impress upon your mind the fatal effect any long absence from her is likely to have on your position in society and though as yet you have only been about three weeks away i are talking and will no doubt continue to talk if you find your old home an agreeable change from town life pray allow your aunt to join you there she will do so i am sure with pleasure she you very greatly and i will never believe that you would cause her needless trouble i may not i know express my own feelings on the subject as i should probably only your scorn or displeasure but simply as an honest man who wishes you nothing but good i ask you quietly to consider to what and you voluntarily expose yourself by running away as it were from a and affectionate protector and second mother like your good aunt and living all alone in the country without any one of your immediate circle of friends within calling distance is there a more or more ludicrous position than that of the independent and god s good man female i think not she is the laughing stock of the clubs and the joke of the press pray do not place yourself in the same with the despised and of your sex but remain on the height where nature placed you and where your charm and intelligence can best secure acknowledgment from the less gifted and fortunate your pardon for any word or phrase in this letter which may chance to annoy you i am my dear miss yours with the utmost devotion what a he is i said half aloud as she put the letter back in its envelope and set it aside what a soft smooth civil correctly trained i how completely he the possibility of my having any intelligence even while he asks me to remain on the height where it can best secure acknowledgment i he never appears to that my intelligence may be of such a quality as to enable me to see through him pretty clearly and so the independent and female is the laughing stock of the clubs is she well i he is quite right there i there s nothing for men to do at their clubs than to laugh at the women who would rather fight the world alone and earn their own than enter into marriages the part of the letter is the bit about aunt must really think me a perfect idiot if he dreams that i would accept such a story as that she was surprised and disturbed at receiving the box of s feathers aunt was never surprised or disturbed at anything in her life i am sure when poor uncle died she pressed her handkerchief to her eyes for five minutes and then sat down at her desk to write her orders for mourning and when i spoke my mind to her about she only smiled and told me not to excite myself then when i said i had determined to leave her altogether and go back to my own home to live she took it quite easily and merely stated she would have to alter her will i assured her i hoped she would do so at once as i had no wish to benefit by her death then she didn t speak to me for several days and i came away quietly without bidding her good bye and here i am and here i mean to stay she laughed a little and moving to the open window looked out on the quiet beauty of the landscape yes i too will become a laughing stock of the clubs and even i may attain god s good man the distinction of being accepted as a joke by the comic press i will be an independent and female and see how i get on in any case i d rather be than have as a and i shall not be alone here now that is coming besides i have two men friends in the village at least i think i	33
have fm sure of one old i the smile lingered on her lips as she stiu looked out on the lawn and terrace by the evening dusk and sweet with the cool perfume of the rising dew and the other if he should turn out as agreeable as he seemed this morning why he is a tower of strength so far as respectability is concerned what better protection can an independent and female have than the minister of the parish i can go to him for a character ask him for a reference throw myself and my troubles upon him as upon a rock and make him answer for me as an honest and well and i believe he would speak up for me as the poor folks say yes my lord i i believe he would and if he did fm certain he would speak straight and not whisper a few small poisonous lies round the comer for i think and here the train of her reflections wandered away from her aunt and her altogether yes i think mr is a good man i was not quite sure about him when i first met him i thought his eyes seemed so many eyes are but i looked well into them to day and they re not the usual eyes of a parson at all they re just the eyes of a british sailor who has watched rough seas all his life and such eyes are always true xv the following monday afternoon to whom had so successfully s commands arrived she was rather an odd looking young person her long thin legs were much too long for the of her black frock which was made en after the fashion to in french where girls are compelled to look as ugly as possible in order that they may the sin of personal vanity her hair of a rich black was in a stiff thick resembling a chinese and was fastened at the end with a bow of ribbon and a pair of wonderfully brilliant dark eyes flashed under her brows suggesting something weird and in their glances and giving an almost expression to her small sallow face but she was full of the most vitality she sparkled all over with it and seemed to it in the mere act of breathing of delight at the prospect of spending the whole summer with her friend and to whom she owed everything and whom she adored with passionate admiration and gratitude she dashed into the old world silence and solitude of s like a wild wave of the sea with sunshine and over with of mirth her incessant chatter and laughter awoke the long hushed echoes of the ancient house to gaiety and every pale lingering shadow of or loneliness fled away from the effect of her presence which acted at once as a and charm to who welcomed her arrival with affectionate enthusiasm but oh my dear i she exclaimed what a little they have made of you you must have grown taller surely since november when i saw you last your frock is ever so much too short i don t think i ve grown a bit said glancing down at her own legs but my frock wore shabby at the bottom and the had a fresh hem turned up all round that reduced its length by a couple of inches god s good man at least i told them as modestly as i could that my ankles were too exposed but they said it didn t matter as i was only a day s eyebrows went up i i don t see what that has to do with it she said would you have preferred to live in the altogether dear grand i and made an expressive not i should not have had half as many lessons from and i should never have been able to write to you without the mere into my letters that s why none of the girls are allowed to have wax all their letters are over a basin of hot water and read before going to post discipline discipline s was nothing to it of course i had to tell the mere that you had sent for me and that i should be away all summer she asked heaps of questions but she got nothing out of me so of course she wrote to your aunt but that doesn t matter does it not in the least answered my aunt has nothing whatever to do with me now nor i with her i am my own mistress and it becomes you declared i never saw you looking prettier you are just the sweetest thing that ever fell out of heaven in human shape oh what a lovely lovely place this is and is it all yours your very very own my very very own and in replying to the question felt a thrill of legitimate pride in the beautiful old house of her ancestors i wish i had never been taken away from it the more i see of it the more i feel i ought not to have left it so long it is real home sweet home said and her great eyes grew suddenly sad and wistful as she slipped a caressing arm round her friend s waist how grateful i am to you for asking me to come and stay in it because after all i am only a poor little peasant with a musical faculty i kissed her affectionately you are a genius my dear she said there s is no higher what does say of you now is satisfied i think but i don t really know he says fm too that my voice is	33
a woman s before i m a girl it s and i m too i know i god s good man am and i know it s horrid but i can t help it i where s the piano there isn t one in the house said smiling s has always lived about a hundred and fifty years behind the times but i ve sent for a grand it will be here this week meanwhile won t this do and she pointed to a quaint little instrument occupying a recess near the window it s a of charles the second s period delightful i cried there s nothing sweeter in the whole world to sing to opening the painted lid with the greatest tenderness and care she passed her hands lightly over the s worn and yellow ivory keys and a faint fairy like listen i isn t it like the wandering voice of some little ghost of the past trying to speak to us she said and in such sweet tune too poor little ghost i shall i sing to you shall i tell you that we have a sympathy in common with you even though you are so old and so far far away i her lips parted and a pure note crystal clear and of such silvery softness as to seem more supernatural than human floated upward on the silence caught her breath and listened with a quickly beating heart she knew that the voice of this child whom she had rescued from a life of misery was a world s marvel le d de il k ii here with a sudden brilliant the singer ran up the scale to the c in and there paused with a as delicious and full as the of a ce il a de le d de she ceased the air broken into delicate carried the lovely sounds outward onward and into distance god s good man she tamed and looked at then smiled i see you are pleased she said pleased i don t anyone was ever bom into the world to sing as you sing looked meditative well i don t know about that i you see there have been several millions of folks bom into the world and there may have been just one naturally created singer among them i she laughed and touched a on the the old french song exactly suits this old french instrument i see it is an ancient thing of paris says i have improved but he will never admit much as you know he has forbidden me to touch the c in and i did it just now i cannot help it sometimes it comes so easy but you must me darling when you hear me taking it i don t want to strain the and i always forget i m only fourteen i feel oh i ever so much older ages old in fact she sighed and stretched her arms up above her head what a perfect room this is to sing in what a perfect house and what a perfect angel you are to have me with you her eyes filled with sudden tears of emotion but she quickly them away et ce she suddenly glancing at the rippling gold brown lights and shades of her friend s hair the delicate hues of her complexion and the grace of her form has he been to see you in this retreat gave a slight gesture of wearied impatience certainly not how can you ask such a question i left my aunt on purpose to get rid of him once and for all and he knows it yet he has written to me every two days regularly since i came here ce murmured with a languid gesture of the society manner of mrs au bout des laughed yes aunt all over she said how tired i am of that phrase she knows as well as anybody that for all his airs of aristocratic propriety is a social villain of the lowest type of modem yet she would rather see me married to him than to any other man she has ever met and why simply because he will be a duke i she would like to say to all her acquaintances my niece is a god s good man she would feel a certain fantastic satisfaction in thinking that her millions were being used to build up the decayed fortunes of an english nobleman s family as well as to restore castle which is in a bad state of repair and she would sacrifice my heart and soul and life to such as these i echoed my dear they are for which nearly all women are willing to scramble fight and die i to be a to dwell in an ancient restored castle of once proud english i saint moses i who wouldn t sacrifice such vague matters as heart life and soul for the glory of being called your grace by i my i you are setting in rank opposition to the of society and won t all the little conventional minds hate you for it i it doesn t matter if they do rejoined i have never been loved since my father s death so i don t mind being hated love you said w ith swift don t say you have never been loved caught her hand tenderly and kissed it i was not thinking of you dear i she said forgive me i was thinking of men they have admired me and with me many of them have wanted to marry me in order to get hold of aunt s fortune with me but none of them have ever loved me i want to be	33
loved i so do said with answering light in her eyes but i don t see how it s going to be done in my case i you may possibly get your wish but ii why my dear i see myself in as a perhaps with several painted and and making sham love to me in opera till i get perfectly sick of and and cry out for something else by way of a change i am quite positive that love love such as we read of in poetry and romance doesn t really exist i and i have another fixed opinion which is that the people who write most about it have never felt it one always expresses best even in a song the emotions one has never experienced at her in a little wonder do you really think that i do it s not one of s sayings though i know i often echo i she went to the window how lovely the garden is i gk d s good man come out on the lawn and let us talk and as they sauntered across the grass together with arms round each other s she on people who write books and music are generally lonely and they write best about love because they need it they fancy it must be much better than it is but after all the things go look at the sky how clear it is and pure is it loved by any other sky that we know of and the sun up there all alone in its splendour i wonder if any other sun loves it there are so many lonely things in the universe and it seems to me that the are always the loveliest and it is only stupid that are worms crawl along in masses swarm in a cheese flies stick in crowds on jam and people shut themselves up all together within the walls of a city i d rather be an eagle than a a star than one of a thousand sparks and as a mere woman i would rather ten thousand times live a solitary life by till i die than be married to a rascal or a fool i exactly my sentiments only you put them more than i can do you know you talk very oddly sometimes very much in advance of your age i mean do i and s tone expressed a mingling of surprise and i didn t know it but i suppose i really can t help it i i was a very miserable child and miserable children age rapidly perhaps i shall get younger as i grow older you must remember that at eleven years old i was floors like any in the for two an hour i gained a lot of worldly wisdom that way by listening to the talk of the which is quite as and scandalous as anything one hears in outside wicked society then i got into the latin set with who picked me up because he heard me singing in the street and altogether my experiences of life haven t been toys and i know i think old and i m sure i feel old i not when you play or sing suggested no not then never then then all the youth of the world seems to rush into me it in my fingers and in my throat i i feel as if i could reach heaven with sound yes i feel that i could sing to god himself if he would only listen her eyes glowed with passion the of her features god s good man was transformed into momentary beauty was silent she knew that the aspirations of genius pent up in this like girl were almost too strong for her and that the very and of her nature were such as to need the greatest care and tenderness in training and she changed the conversation to ordinary subjects and in a little while had learned all that herself knew about the village of st best and its inhabitants she was considerably interested in the story of the rescue of the five sister and asked with a touch of anxiety what had become of the dismissed agent oh he is still in the neighbourhood said indifferently he works for sir and i believe has found a home at his accounts are not yet all handed in to my but i have a new agent now a mr he is just married to quite a nice young woman and he has already begun work mr has splendid so that will be all right no doubt so far as mr himself is concerned it will be all right rejoined but if as you say the man cursed you it isn t pleasant to think he is hanging around here he isn t hanging round anywhere declared easily is out of this beat altogether he cursed me certainly but he was in a temper and i should say that curses come naturally to him but as the clergyman was present at the time the curse couldn t take any effect she laughed you know satan always runs away from the church who is the clergyman and what is he like asked he s not at all disagreeable answered carelessly rather stiff perhaps and old fashioned but he seems to be a great favourite with all his his name is john he has restored the church here quite at his own expense and according to the early original design it is really quite wonderful when i was a child here i only remember it as a ruin but now people come from far and near to see it it	33
will please you immensely but you don t go to it observed no i haven t attended a service there as yet but i don t say i never will attend one that will depend on circumstances god s good man i remember you always hated said thoughtfully laughed yes i always did i and you always will i suppose well i expect i shall have to mr answered lightly because he s really my nearest neighbour but he s not so bad as most of his class i he s a better type of man than lord said by the way that highly distinguished nobleman has spread about a report that you are peculiar simply because you won t marry him the very at the have heard this and it does make me so angry i for when people get hold of the word peculiar it is made to mean several things i know i and for a moment s fair brows clouded with a shadow of perplexity and annoyance it is a word that may pass for madness or any form of social but i don t mind i i m quite aware that if he cannot marry me will me it s a way some modem men have of covering their own and defeat the woman in question is through the smart set as peculiar difficult impossible to deal with oh yes i i know it all but i m prepared for it and just to a little i m going to have a few people down here by way of witnesses to my peculiar mode of life then they can go back to london and talk they can and they will you may be sure of that said is this a dressed county gave vent to a peal of laughter i should say not but i really don t know i she replied people have called on me but i have not as yet returned their calls we ll do that in this coming week the only x i have seen who as a county lady is an elderly named only daughter of sir who is a and therefore not actually in the county at all miss was certainly not dressed she was merely covered that s the very height of propriety i declared for after all covering alone is necessary dress in the full sense of the word vanity and all its attendant sins says you can always pick out a very dull re god s good man woman by the of her clothes i expect miss is dull she is most unquestionably but i m afraid she is only a of country life generally country life is dull especially in england then why do you go in for it her black brows simply to escape something even laughed london society and its souls i laughed too and shrugged her shoulders she understood all that was implied and with her whole heart she rejoiced that her friend whom she loved with an almost passionate adoration and gratitude had voluntarily turned her back on the smart set and so of her own accord instead of through her and had the devil and all his works the and vanity of this wicked world and all the sinful of the flesh within a very few days st best became aware of s quaint personality for she soon succeeded in making herself familiar with everybody in the place she had a of winning friends she visited old and made him laugh till he nearly choked so that had to pat him vigorously on the back to enable him to recover his breath she cut jokes with mrs with the adam frost and scattered among all his children and she startled the village choir at practice by suddenly flitting into the church and asking miss the to allow her to play the organ accompaniment and on miss s to this proposition she played in such a fashion that the church seemed filled with musical thunder and the songs of angels and the village both girls and boys became and nervous and huddled themselves together in a silent group afraid to open their mouths lest a false note should escape and spoil the splendour of the wonderful harmony that so mysteriously charmed their souls and then the passion of the music down she turned with courtesy to miss and asked what were the children going to sing whereupon being told that it was a hymn called the lord is my shepherd die so very sweetly entreated them to sing it with her that none of them could refuse and she led them all with wondrous care and patience giving to the very simple tune a tender and noble pathos such as they had never heard before yet which they god s good man absorbed into their own singing as they lifted up their youthful voices in tremulous the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he me down to lie in pleasant fields where the lilies grow and the river by the lord is my shepherd he me in the depth of a desert land and lest i should in the darkness slip he me by the hand the lord is my shepherd i shall not want my mind on him is stayed and though through the valley of death i walk i shall not be afraid the lord is my shepherd o shepherd sweet leave me not here to stray but guide me safe to thy heavenly fold and keep me there i pray john passing through the churchyard just at this time heard the rise and fall of the quaint old melody with a strange thrill at his heart he had listened to the self same hymn over and over again every year the re studied and	33
john never told me he was handsome she mused but he is i wonder why she didn t mention it so odd of her because really there are very few good looking men anywhere and one in the shape of a parson is a positive and ought to go on exhibition i he s clever too and obstinate yes i should say he was obstinate but he has kind eyes and he isn t married what a comfort that is are uninteresting enough in themselves as a rule but their wives are the last possibility in the way of oh that and she sprang over the grass to the comer of a hedge where a long trail of the exquisitely scented flower hung as it seemed within reach but when she approached it she found it just too high above her to be plucked from the bough where its looking up at it she softly o fortune tu es tu ton qui un here a sudden rustle in the leaves on the other side of the hedge startled her and a curious looking human head adorned with somewhat disordered locks of red hair up jumped back with an exclamation saint moses what is it it is me i merely me and sir s guest mr rose to his full height god s good man and turned his face of more or less comic melancholy upon her pray do not be alarmed i i have been under the trees and i was or so i imagine in a brief slumber when some as of a awoke me here stooping to the ground for his hat he secured it and waved it and i have i fear created some dismay in the mind of the interesting young person who if i mistake not is a friend of miss surveyed him with considerable amusement never mind who i am i she said coolly tell me who you are my faith you are as rough all over as a bear what have you been doing to yourself your clothes are covered with leaves even as a babe in the wood responded yes it is so and he began to pick delicately the various and scraps of forest which had collected and clung to his suit during his open air to speak truly i am a in these they are the woods i know forbidden and possibly guarded by spring guns but i not the board which speaks of i came to gather innocent merely that and no to adorn my humble cot i have a cot not far from here and as for my identity my name is a poor of a service he waved his hat with a grand flourish again and smiled oh i know said has spoken of you you ve taken a cottage here for the summer pick that bit of for me will you that long trail just hanging over you with pleasure and he gathered the spray and handed it to her thanks and she smiled as she took it how did you get into that wood did you jump the hedge i did replied could you jump it again most assuredly then do it whereupon clapped his hat on his head and resting a hand firmly on one of the rough posts which supported the close green barrier between them lightly over it and stood beside her not badly done said him god s good man for a poor of as you call yourself most men who moon about and write verse are too drunken and vicious to even see a hedge much less jump over it oh say not so exclaimed you are too young to pass judgment on the gods the gods i exclaimed whatever are you talking about the gods of greece they were an awful lot perfectly awful they wouldn t have been admitted even into modem society and that s bad enough i don t think the worst woman that ever dined at a paris with an english cabinet minister would have spoken to par i m sure she wouldn t she d have drawn the line there gracious heavens and stared in at his companion first up then down at her wild hair now loosened from its form of and scarcely restrained by the big sun hat which was tied on anyhow at her great dark eyes at her thin figure and long legs legs which were still somewhat too visible though since her arrival at s had some thoughtful alterations in the dress of her musical which had considerably improved her appearance is it possible to hear such things why of course it is as you ve got ears and have heard them said with a laugh don t ask is it possible to do a thing when you ve done it that s not logical and men do pride themselves on their logic though i could never find out why do you like and she thrust the great bunch she ha gathered up against his nose there s a poem for you the fresh fine of the field blossoms he still looked at her in amazement she meeting his gaze the least touch of embarrassment you can walk home with me if you like she observed i won t promise to ask you into the because perhaps won t want you and i she won t approve of my picking up a young man in the woods but it s rather fun to talk to a poet i ve never met one before they don t come out in paris they live in holes and comers to keep off hunger alas that is so and began to keep pace	33
with the thin black legs that were already starting off through the long grass and flowers the arts are at a dis god s good man i count nowadays poetry is the last thing people want to read then why do you write it and turned a sharp glance of upon him what s the good there you offer me a problem miss er miss finished don t fight with my name it s quite easy though i don t know how i got it i ought to have been a or a i was bom in never mind that go on with the problem true go on with the problem said vaguely taking off his hat and his hair with his fingers as he was wont to do when at all puzzled the problem is why do i write poetry if nobody wants to read it and what s the good now in the first place i will reply that i am not sure i write poetry i try to express my identity in and rhyme but after all that expression of myself may be prose and wholly without interest to the majority you see i put it to you quite plainly then as to what s the good i would argue what s the bad so far i live quite from the unexpected of an uncle whom i never saw i have a life income of sixty pounds a year i am happy on that i desire no more than that on that i seek to into something from a into shape and substance and if as is quite possible there can be no good there may be a certain less of bad than might otherwise chance to me what think you surveyed him i m not at all sure about that she said poets have au been doubtful specimens of humanity at their best you see their lives are entirely occupied in writing what isn t true and of course it tells on them in the long run they deceive others first and then they deceive themselves though in their fits of inspiration as they call it they may while weaving a thousand lies accidentally hit on one but the lies chiefly for example was a perfectly brazen liar he didn t go to hell or or paradise and he didn t bother himself about at all he married else and had a family nothing could be more commonplace he invented his in order to put his enemies there au boiling or it was pure personal spite and it is the very force of his that makes the the best part of his the portraits of alone are enough to show you the sort of man he was what a creature to meet in a dark lane at midnight god s good man here made a drawing her mouth down into the frown of the famous with such an irresistibly comic effect that gave way to a peal of hearty almost boyish laughter that s right i said that s you you know it s natural to laugh at your age you re only about six or seven and twenty aren t you i shall be twenty seven in august he said with a swift return to solemnity that is as you will admit getting on towards thirty oh nonsense i everybody s getting on towards thirty of course or towards sixty or towards a hundred i shall be fifteen in october but you will admit here she hia voice and accent that i am getting on towards a hundred some folks think i ve turned that already and that i m entering my second century i talk so old but my talk is nothing to what i feel i feel oh and she gave a kind of to her whole figure like twenty in one girl you are an original said nodding at her with an air of superior wisdom that s what you are i like you sir moon calf said the word moon you know stands for poet it means a human calf that on the moon naturally the animal never gets fat nor will you it always looks odd and so will you it never does anything useful nor will you and it puts a kind of crust over itself under which crust it writes verses when you break through its crust you find something like a man half asleep not knowing whether he s man or boy and uncertain whether to laugh or be serious till some girl fun at him and then and then laughed entering into her what next this next and him full in the face with one of her and this catch me if you can i away she flew over the grass with after her through tall and field they each other like children startling astonished bees from in and shaking away from their on tiie and the private gate leading into s garden stood open rushed in and shut it against her who reached it almost at the same instant god s good man too lie cried tou mustn t keep me out i i m bound to come inside i why demanded breathless with her run but looking all the better for the colour in her cheeks and the light in her eyes i don t see the line of argument at all your hair is simply dreadful you look like pan heated in the pursuit of a of if you only wore skins and a pair of hoofs the resemblance would be perfect i my dear i said a voice at this	33
moment where have you been all the morning i how do you do mr won t you come in took off his hat as came across to the gate from the shadow of a knot of pine trees looking the of fresh in a soft white gown trimmed with wonderfully knotted of rose ribbon and wearing an straw hat with a careless knot of pink tumbling against her lovely hair she was a perfect picture after and thought she knew it but there he was wrong knew little and cared less about her personal appearance where have you been she repeated taking round the waist you wild girl do you know it is lunch time i had almost given you up said you had gone into the village but more than that she couldn t tell me i did go to the village said and i went into the church and played the organ and helped the children sing a hymn and i met the parson mr and had a talk with him then i started home across the fields and found this man and she indicated with a careless nod of her head asleep in a wood i almost promised him some lunch i didn t quite my dear miss protested pray do not think of such a thing i would not intrude upon you in this way for the world i why not said smiling graciously it will be a pleasure if you will stay to luncheon with us has here you know genius must have its way of course it must agreed if genius wants to stand on its head it must be allowed to make that exhibition of itself lest it should if genius asks the lame halt blind and into the halls of s then the lame halt blind and are bound to come if genius summons the god pan to pipe a there shall be i shall there not mr pan god s good man her eyes danced with mirth and mischief as they flashed from his face to s genius she continued can even call forth a parson from the deep if it chooses to do so mr is coming to tea this afternoon indeed i and s sweet voice was a trifle cold did you invite him yes told him that you thought it rather rude of him not to have come before oh i said reproachfully you should not have said that i why not you did think him rude and so did i to refuse two kind invitations from you anyhow he seemed sorry and said he d make up for it this afternoon he s really quite good looking quite quite agreed i considered him so when i saw him in his own church opposing a calm front to the and appalling ignorance of our venerable acquaintance sir i decided that i had found a man so new so fresh i that is why i took a cottage for the summer close by that i might be near the rare specimen i laughed are you not a man yourself she said not altogether he admitted i am but half grown i am a raw and fruit even to my own john is a ripe and mellow creature moreover he seems still in constant sunshine i go every sunday to hear him preach because he reminds me of so much that i had forgotten here they went into luncheon threw off her hat as she seated herself at the head of the table her hair with the action into prettier waves of brown gold her cheeks were softly flushed her blue eyes radiant you are a better than i am mr i she said i have not been to church once since i came home i never go to church naturally i quite understand few people of any education or intelligence can stand it nowadays he replied the christian is well nigh exploded yet one cannot help having a certain sympathy and interest in men who like mr appear to still honestly believe in it the christian echoed my word you do lay down the law where should we be without the i wonder god s good man pretty much where we are now said two thousand years of the christian leaves the world still pagan self indulgence is still wealth stiu both classes and masses politics are still corrupt trade still plays its old game of beggar my neighbour what would you i and in this day there is no influence on the of social morals literature is likewise painting and poetry are man s is obtaining the upper hand and bearing him back to his natural and the of the ideal as shown forth in a few examples of heroic and noble living are like the flash of the a storm cloud beautiful but alas i i m afraid you are right said with a little sigh it is very sad and but i fear very true it s nothing of the kind declared with quick vehemence it s just absolute nonsense it is i ah never shake thy locks at me sir moon calf i and she made a little across the table at who responded to it with a complacent smile you can talk talk talk of course i every man that ever sat in clubs smoking and drinking can talk one s head off but you ve got to live as well as talk i what do you know about self indulgence being except in your own case eh do you think at all of the thousands and thousands of poor creatures everywhere who completely sacrifice their lives to the needs of	33
others of course there are such admitted but no come into the went on the girl her eyes darkening with the earnestness of her thoughts i have seen quite enough even in my time to know how good and kind to one another even the poorest people can be and i have had plenty of hardships to endure too i but i can tell you one thing and that is that the christian as you call it is just the one thing that makes my life worth living i don t want to talk about religion i never do i only just say this that the great lesson of christianity is exactly what we most need to learn in what way asked smiling why merely that if one is honest and true one be therefore one is prepared and there s no need to cry out when the nails are driven in the christian teaches us what to expect how to endure and how at last to triumph i god s good man a lovely light illuminated her face and looked at her very tenderly was silent nothing does one so much good as to be hurt went on in a lighter tone you then become aware that you are a somebody whom other bodies envy you never know how high you have climbed till you feel a few dirty hands behind you trying to pull you down when i start my career as a singer i shall not be satisfied till i get letters every morning telling me what a fraud and failure i am then i shall that i am famous i alas said with a resigned air i shall never be of sufficient importance for that no one would waste a penny stamp on me all i can ever hope to win is the unanimous abuse of the press that will at least give me an interested public i they laughed is mr a great friend of yours ah that i cannot tell i replied he may be friend or he may be foe he writes for a great literary paper and is a member of many literary clubs he has produced three books all dull but he has a its members are sworn to praise or die indeed if they do not praise they become mysteriously like rats or i myself have praised lest i also get a dose of his poison he will not praise me but no matter for that if he would only abuse me i but he won t i his blame is far more valuable than his at present he stands like a kind of post very much in my way i he knows lord he tells me went on s sharp glance flashed at her lord is by way of being a patron of the arts the tone of her voice slightly contemptuous was not lost on he fancied he was on dangerous ground i have never met lord myself he said but i have heard speak of him however rather makes for society i do not is quite at home with and or to be put in with a slight smile or to be i accept the agreed personally i know nothing of him said i god s good man have never seen him at any of the functions in london and i should imagine him to be a man who rather over estimated himself so many literary men do that is why most of them are such terrible social to the crime of being a literary man i plead not guilty i and folded his hands in a kind of mock solemn appeal moreover i swear never to become one i good smiled be a modem pan and run away from all the literary kicking up the dust behind you in their faces as you got the woods in and sing the wind in the and the rushes the bees on the bells of the birds on the bushes the above in the lime and the below in the were as silent as ever old was listening to my sweet ah i cried the divine and how you utter his lines i do you know the last verse of that poem i sang of the dancing stars raised her hand commanding attention and went on sang of the dancing stars i sang of the earth and of heaven and the giant wars and love and death and birth and then i changed my singing how down the of i pursued a maiden and clasped a reed gods and men we are all thus it breaks in our bosom and then we all wept as i think both ye now would if envy or age had not frozen your blood at the sorrow of my sweet beau beau sighed but so remote so very remote alas who reads now i do said does you do and many more didn t write for free and he wrote for the love of art and he was drowned you do the same and perhaps you ll be hung it doesn t much matter how you end so long as you begin to be something no one else can be god s good man you have certainly begun in that direction i said shrugged her shoulders i don t know i am myself most people try to be what they re not a waste of time and effort i that s why i ve taken a fancy to the parson i met this morning mr he is himself and no other he is as much himself as old is is an individuality so is mr so is so am i and here she pointed a witch	33
like finger at so would you be if you didn t pose as much as you do i i murmured though she smiled a slight flush swept over s face but he took the remark without offence thereby showing himself to be of better than the little of his outward appearance indicated you think so he said placidly that is very dear of you i very young you may be right you may be wrong but from one so as yourself it is a proposition worth considering to pose or not to pose it is so new so xvi kept his promise and duly arrived to tea at the that afternoon he found his hostess in the library with and she was showing to the latter one or two rare first and was talking but she broke off her conversation the moment he was announced and advanced to meet him with a bright smile at last mr i she said i am glad has succeeded where i failed in persuading you to accept the welcome that has awaited you here for some time i the words were gracefully spoken with just the faintest trace of kindly reproach in their simple as they were they managed to deprive john of all power to frame a suitable reply he bowed over the little white hand extended to him and murmured something which was even to himself while he despised what he considered his own foolishness and general from the bottom of his heart saw his embarrassment and hastened to relieve him of it we have been talking books she said lightly mr has almost knelt in adoration before my shakespeare first it is very precious being in the published lists of ordinary i suppose you have seen it indeed i have replied as he shook hands with and nodded pleasantly to tm afraid miss that if you knew how often i have sat lone in this library turning over the precious volumes you might be very angry with me i but i have saved one or two from the of damp such as the illuminated and some few rare so you must try to forgive my mrs used to let me come in and study here whenever i liked will you not do so still sweetly i can promise you both solitude and silence again a wave of awkwardness overcame him what could he say in response to this friendly and gentle god s good man you are very kind he murmured not at all the library is very seldom used so the kindness will be quite on your side if you can make it of service i you know more about the books than i do my father was very proud of them he had cause to be said beginning to recover his and ease as the conversation turned into a channel which was his natural element it is one of the finest in england the alone are worth a fortune here he moved to the table where stood turning over a painted book of hours that is perfect twelfth century work he said there is a picture in it which ought to please miss and he turned the pages over tenderly here it is the loveliest of saint in the act of singing smiled with pleasure and hung over the beautifully illuminated figure surrounded with angels in clouds of golden glory there s one thing about heaven which everybody seems agreed upon she said it s a place where we re all expected to sing i not a doubt of it i agreed you will be quite in your element i the idea of heaven is remote so very remote said but if such a place existed and i were bound to essay a effort there i should it at once to hell i the angels would never forgive me they laughed let us go into the garden said it is quite lovely just now there are such cool deep shadows on the lawn at once ran out to follow tied on her hat with its pink strings and its bunch of pink tumbling against her small shell like ear and looked up from under its brim with an smile will you come mr i john murmured something politely inarticulate in assent he was as has already been stated apt to be rather at a loss in the company of women unless they were well and with whom he could converse on the most ordinary and commonplace topics such as the of the of children or the best for a feminine creature who appeared to exist merely to the eye and attract the senses moved him god s good man to a kind of mental confusion which affected himself chiefly as no one save the most intimate of his friends would ever have noticed it or guessed that he was at any sort of pains to seem at ease just now as he took his soft hat and followed his fair hostess out on the lawn his mind was more or less in a state of chaos and the thoughts that kept coming and going were as to put into order as a chinese puzzle one uncomfortable memory however sat in a comer of his brain like the mocking of a mischievous pointing its finger and reminding him of the fact not to be denied that but a short while ago he had made up his mind to dislike ay even to that mysterious composition of white and rose blue eyes and chestnut gold hair called that he had resolved she would be an altogether objectionable personage in the village his village of st and that he had wished ah i what had he	33
you i laughed well i was inclined to pity myself when he first began said laughing also but i must confess i was agreeably surprised some of his fancies are quite charming they had been walking slowly across the lawn and were now within a few steps of the big tree i must take you into the rose garden mr i and she raised her eyes to his with that confiding look which was one of her special charms the roses are god s good man just out and i want you to see them before the summer gets more advanced though i you know every in the place don t you i believe i do he admitted you see an old like myself is bound to have and my particular is i love flowers and i go everywhere i can or may to see them and watch their growth so that for years i have visited your rose garden miss i have been a regular and persistent but all the same i have never plucked a rose well i wish you said feeling somewhat impatient with him for calling himself an old why did he give himself away she thought i wish you had plucked them all and handed them round in baskets to the villagers especially to the old and sick persons it would have been much better than to have had them sold at through did he sell them exclaimed john quickly i am not surprised he sold everything and put the money in his own pocket said but after all the loss is quite my own fault i ought to have into the management of the property myself and i certainly ought not to have stayed away from home so many years but it s never too late to mend i she smiled and advancing a step or two called i turned looking up from beneath her spreading of dark boughs oh we re having such fun i she exclaimed mr is talking words and i m talking music i well show you how it goes presently i do please r laughed it must be delightful i mr and i are going into the rose garden we shall be back in a few minutes she moved along her white dress floating softly over the green turf its delicate and knots of rosy ribbon looking like a trail of living flowers walking at her side nodded as he passed close by and his tall figure well with s fairy like grace and presently crossing from the lawn to what was called the cherry tree walk because the path led under an arched work over which a couple of hundred were trained to form a long or they turned down ity and drawing closer together in conversation under god s good man the shower of white blossoms that shed fragrance above their heads they disappeared struck by a certain or what she would have called a stage effect in the manner of their exit stopped abruptly in the humming of a tune with which she declared she had been suddenly inspired by some lines had just isn t she pretty i she said indicating with a jerk of her ever hand the last luminous glimmer of s vanishing gown she s like or in why don t you write something about her instead of about some girl you imagine and never see lying at his ease on the grass turned on his arm and likewise looked after the two figures that had just passed as it seemed into a paradise of snowy flowers the girls i imagine are always so much better than those i see he replied with thank you i said you are quite rude you but it doesn t matter he stared up at her in vague astonishment oh i didn t mean he explained you re not a girl no really ejaculated then what am i pray he looked at her at her thin sallow little face with the intense eyes burning like flame under her black eyebrows at her drooping arms and figure into the long black legs which ended in a pair of large shoes that covered feet of a decidedly flat iron model then he smiled oddly you are a he said an a a witch i you were born in a dark cave where the sea dashed in at high tide and made the rough stones roar with music there were sea above your cradle and when the wind howled and you cried they called to you wildly in such a plaintive way that you stopped your tears to listen to them and to watch their white wings round you you are not a girl no how can you be for when you grew a little older the invisible people of the air took you away into a eat forest and taught you to swing yourself on the boughs of the trees while the stars at you through the thick green leaves and you heard the sing at morning and the at evening till at last you learned the and and the little caught sob in the throat which almost breaks the heart of those who listen god s good man to it and so you have become what you are and what i say you always will be a a witch not a girl but a genius he waved his hand with fantastic gesture and up his hair that s all very well and very pretty said showing her even white teeth in a flashing grin but of course you don t mean a word of it s merely a way of talking such as poets or men that call themselves poets affect when	33
the fit is on them just a string of words mere i you d better write them down though you t waste them i pay for so many words i believe whether they re sense or nonsense please don t lose any on my account do you know you are smiling up at the sky as if you were entirely mad ordinary people would say you were people to whom dinner is the dearest thing in life would suggest your being locked up and me too i you haven t answered my question why don t you write something about she too is not a girl rejoined she is a woman and she is absolutely too lovely to find expression even in poetry said complacently no not that not that and gave a kind of on the grass as he raised himself to a half sitting posture gentle do not mistake me when i say that miss is i would fain point out that she is above and beyond the reach of my muse i cannot experience her yes that is so what a poet needs most is the flesh model the flesh model may be or or jane of the bar and tap room but she must have lips to kiss hair to touch form to caress saint moses cried with an excited of her long legs must she she must declared with decision because when you have kissed the lips you have experienced a sensation and you can write ah how sweet the lips i love you needn t love them of course you merely try them she must be and good natured and allow herself to be gazed at for an hour or so till you decide the colour of her eyes if they are blue you can george on the blue is the sl blue is thine eye system if black you can recall the lovely as the light of a dark eye in woman of she must allow you to freely god s good man her waist with an arm so that having felt the emotion you can write how tenderly that yielding form to my touch and then even as a painter who pays so much per hour for studying from the life you can go away and forget her or you can her charms in rhyme or imagine that she is fairer than s moon goddess for so long as she serves you thus she is useful but once her uses are exhausted the poet has done with her and seeks a fresh hence as i say your friend miss is above my for the beautiful i must content myself with some type and imagine the rest well i should think you must if that s the way you go to work said with eyes of merriment and mischief why you are worse than the artists of the latin if you must needs experience your models i wonder that and jane of the bar and tap room are good enough for you any human female murmured provided she is and is not the mother of a large family at the spectacle of many olive branches the muse shrieks a wild farewell i broke into a peal of laughter you absurd creature i she s id you don t mean half the nonsense you talk you know you don t do i not but then what do i mean am i justified in assuming that i mean anything and he again ran his fingers through his ruddy locks no i think not therefore if i now make a suggestion pray me from any serious intentions it and yet and yet what at him with some curiosity ah i and yet such little words and yet i he murmured they are like the stepping stones across a brook which one sweet from another and yet m he sighed profoundly and a from the turf gazed into its golden heart what i would say gentle is this you call me moon calf therefore there can be no objection to my calling you i think not the least in the world declared i rather like it i so good of you so dear he said well and yet as i have observed the muse may like the utter words without apparent which only god s good man the skilled at her altar may be able to therefore in this precise manner my suggestion may be wholly without point or it may not please get on with it whatever it is urged you re not going to propose to me are you because if so it s no use i m too young and i only met you this morning he threw the he had just plucked at her laughing face you are delicious he but the ghastly of matrimony does not at present stand in my path me to the frightful of oblivion and despair what was it the charming girl wrote on this very subject me et i can tell you exclaimed it was the one sentence in the whole book that made all the men mad because it showed such utter contempt for them me et des pent en i je la i oh how i agree with her je la her dark eyes into passion for a moment she looked almost beautiful stared languidly at her as he would have stared at the heroine of an exciting scene on the stage with indolent yet critical interest he sighed you are so new so fresh i like just gathered said down suddenly from his burst of enthusiasm and what of your suggestion my suggestion rejoined is	33
one that may seem to you a strange one it is even strange to myself but it has flashed into my brain suddenly and even so inspiration may affect the it is this suppose the parson fell in love with the lady or the lady fell in love with the parson either neither or both sat up straight in her chair as though she liad been suddenly pulled erect by an wire what do you mean she asked suppose the parson fell in love with the lady or the lady with the parson is it a riddle it may possibly become one he replied complacently but to speak more plainly suppose mr fell in love with miss or miss fell in love with mr what would you say suppose a moon calf jumped over the moon said god s good man saint moses is as likely to fall in love as i am and i m the very last possibility in the way of sentiment why whatever are you thinking of has heaps of men in love with her she could marry to morrow if she liked ay no doubt she could marry that is quite common but perhaps she could not love and waved one hand to love is so new i so fresh but would never fall in love with a parson i declared almost a parson i a country parson too i the idea is perfectly ridiculous i a glimmer of white in the vista of the cherry tree walk here suddenly appeared and warned her that and the reverend john were returning from their inspection the rose garden she checked herself in an outburst of speech and silently watched them approaching watched them too with a kind of interest they were deep in conversation and carried a bunch of white and blush roses which she had evidently just gathered she looked animated and now and then a light ripple of her laughter floated out on the air as sweet as the songs of the birds around them the roses are perfectly lovely she exclaimed as she came under the shadow of the great tree mr says he has never seen the standards so full of bud here she held the cluster she had gathered under s nose aren t they delicious i oh by the bye mr i have promised you you must have it in return for the spray of you gave me when i came to see your garden now you must take a rose from mine and laying all the roses on s lap she selected one delicate blush white bloom shall i put it in your coat for you if you will so far honour me i answered he was strangely pale and a slight tremor passed over him as he looked down at the small fingers pink tipped as the of the flower they so fastened in his and how he continued with an effort addressing and how have music and poetry got on together oh we re not married yet said shaking off the dumb spell which s suggestion had for a moment cast upon her mind we ought to be of course for a real good opera but we re only just beginning courtship mr has some lines of his own composition and o god s good man i have some music you shall hear the result some day why not now as she seated herself in another chair next to s under the and signed to to do the same why because i believe that the tea is about to arrive i saw the majestic in the distance with a didn t you mr rose from his half position on the grass and his eyes from the afternoon sunshine looked towards the house yes it is even he replied and a subordinate are on the way hither with various creature comforts music and poetry must pause awhile yet why should there be a pause it is for this that i am a of he was a as well as a and his music admits of the creature comforts as much as the exalted and subtle and of life poor said the pretty of him is like the wailing of a lamb led to the slaughter grass is good to on other are fair to with but alas neither grass nor can last and therefore as cannot always be it its end in i but thank god there is something stronger and wiser in the universe than i true i said but even has a right to complain of its destiny smiled i think not he rejoined no created thing has a right to complain of its destiny it finds itself here and the fact that it is here is a proof that there is a purpose for its existence what that purpose is we do not know yet but we shall know lifted eyelids you think we shall most assuredly i what does say the day is dark and the night to him that would search their l rt no lips of cloud that will part nor morning song in the light only gazing alone to him wild shadows are shown deep under deep unknown god s good man and above unknown height still we say as we go strange to think by the way whatever there is to know that shall we know one day he the lines softly but with eloquent emphasis you see those of us who take tlie trouble to consider the working and progress of events know well enough that this glorious creation around us is not a caprice or a farce it is designed for a cause and moves steadily towards that cause there may be no doubt there are many	33
men who elect to view life from a low material or even nevertheless life in itself is serious and noble s dark face lightened as with an illumination while she listened to these words who had taken up the roses she had laid in s lap and was now arranging them afresh looked up sudden yet there are many searching truths in the philosophy of mr she said many sad facts that even our religion can scarcely get over don t you think so he met her eyes with a gentle in his own i think religion if true and pure turns all sad facts to sweetness miss he said at least so i have found it the clear conviction of his tone was like the sound of a silver bell calling to prayer a silence followed broken only by the singing of a little bird aloft in the tree whose expressed the joys of innocence and trust one pretty verse of i remember then said abruptly fixing her penetrating eyes on and it really isn t a bit it is this the bird of life is singing on the his two eternal notes of i and thou o well for soon the song sings through and would we hear it we must near it a white rose slipped from the cluster held and dropped on the grass john stooped for it and gave it back to her their hands just touched as she smiled her thanks there was nothing in the simple exchange of to move any self possessed man from his normal calm yet a god s good man sudden hot thrill and leap of the heart dazed s brain for a moment and made him almost giddy a sick fear an horror of himself possessed him caught by this transport of sudden and singular emotion he felt he could have rushed away away anywhere out of reach and observation and have never entered the fair and gardens of s again why in heaven s name why he could not tell but he had no right to be there no right to be there he kept on repeating to himself he ought to have remained at home shut up in his study with his dog and his books alone alone always alone the brief tempest raged over his soul with wind and fire then passed leaving no trace on his quiet features and composed manner but in that single instant an abyss had been opened in the depths of his own consciousness an abyss into which he looked with amazement and dread at the strange which had involuntarily led him to its brink and he now drew back from it nervously shuddering and would we hear it we must hear it now i repeated with at this juncture as i have said and will always maintain s verse always fits in with the happy approach of creature comforts behold the illustration and example with the tea it is a pretty verse though isn t it moving her chair aside to make more space for the butler and footman as they set out the afternoon tea table in the deepest shade bestowed by the drooping boughs isn t it and her searching eyes fastened themselves upon john s face very pretty he answered steadily and so far s it goes very true i xvii after te i they re entered the house at s request to hear play arrived in the drawing room they found the only truly modem thing in it a grand piano of that noted french make which as far the german model as a genuine a child s fiddle put together yesterday and taking her seat at this instrument had transformed both herself and it into unspeakable enchantment the thing of wood and wire and ivory keys had become possessed as it were with the thunder of the clouds and the great rush of the sea and then it had suddenly whispered of the sweetness of love and life till out of storm had grown the tender calm of a flowing melody on which dreams of happiness glittered like rainbow on foam shining for a moment and then vanishing at a breath it had caught the voices of the rain and wind and the drops and had sharply the scale of sound till the very notes seemed alive with the wrath of nature and then it had rolled all the wild away into a sustained magnificence of which seemed to plead for all things grand all things true all things beautiful and to list the soul of man in panting ecstasy up to the very threshold of heaven and she the who all this of life set in harmony she too changed as it seemed in nature and aspect her small meagre face was as the face of a pictured angel with the dark hair round it in thick knots and curling waves as of bronze while the eyes full of soft passion and fire glowed beneath the broad temples with the light of youth s imperial dream of fame what human creature could accept the limited fact of being mere man mere woman only while played such music as hers recalled and revealed the earliest splendour of the days when was newly bom when gods and were believed to walk the world in large and majestic freedom and when brave deeds of chivalry and self sacrifice became exalted by the very of rich imagination into facts of heaven god s good man conquering hell charming not then was man made to seem uncouth or mean and savage in his attempts to the planet but strong fearless and endowed with dignity and power not then was every noble	33
sentiment every truth every trust betrayed every tenderness and every sweet emotion made the subject of a or a sneer not then was love mere lust marriage mere convenience and life mere of gain there was something higher greater purer than these something of the inspiring breath of god which according to the old narrative was breathed into humanity with the words let us make man in our image after our likeness that image of god was in the waves of music which through s brain and fingers out on the air and when she ceased playing there followed a dumb spell of and awe which those who had listened to her marvellous were afraid to break by a word or movement and then with a smile at their mute admiration and astonishment she had passed her small hands lightly again over the a playful and the pure silvery sound of her voice had the air asunder with de s adieu i adieu ma rose qui m as i les courts de oe les je au moment oh je te oh m mon je m en ma adieu was it ble for any man with a drop of warm blood through his veins not to feel a quicker heart beat a at the half melancholy half mocking sweetness she into these lines je et sur ma ton ch re ton beau front de tu mon le god s good man en ma tour t with the passion fire and exquisite abandon of her singing of this verse in tones of such youthful freshness and as could scarcely he equalled and never surpassed could no longer restrain himself and crying i i fell to clapping his hands in the wildest ecstasy less was far more moved something quite new and strange to his long fixed habit and temperament had crept over him and being well accustomed to self analysis he was conscious of the fact and uneasy at finding himself in the grip of an emotion to which he could give no name therefore he was glad when the music being ended and when he had expressed his more or less praise and thanks to for the her wonderful gift had afforded him he could plead some business in the village as an excuse to take his departure very sweetly bade him come again as often as you like she said and i want you to promise me one thing mr you must consent to meet some of my london friends here one evening to dinner she had given him her hand in parting and he was holding it in his own i m afraid i should be very much in the way miss he replied with a grave smile i am not a social acquisition by any means i i live very much alone and a solitary life i think suits me best she looked at him thoughtfully and withdrew her hand that means that you do not care to come she said simply i am so sorry you do not like me i the blood rushed up to his brows miss he stammered pray do not think but here she turned aside to receive s and thanks for the charming afternoon he had spent in her company after this and when had made his exit accompanied by who wanted him to give her a written copy of certain verses he had composed again spoke well at any rate i shall send you an invitation to one of my parties whether you come or not mr she said otherwise i shall feel i have not done my social duty to the minister of the parish i it will be for some even god s good man ing during the next three weeks i hope you will be able to accept it if not a sudden resolve inspired john s hesitating soul taking the hand she offered he raised it lightly to his lips with all the gallantry of an old world rather than a parson if you wish me to accept it it shall be accepted i he said and his voice shook a little forgive me if in any way i have seemed to you miss i am so much of a solitary that society has rather an effect upon me but you must never here he looked at her full and bravely you must never say again or think that i do not like you i i do like you i eyes met his with pure and candid earnestness that is kind of you she said and i am glad i good bye and so he left her presence when he started to walk home across the fields proffered his companionship which could not in civility be refused they left the grounds together by the little gate and took the customary short cut to the village the afternoon light was warmly into a deeper glow a delicate suggestion of approaching evening was in the breath of the air and though the of earth had not yet darkened the first gold cloud beneath the western glory of the sun there was a gentle murmur and movement among the trees and and birds which indicated that the time for rest and sleep was drawing nigh the long mysteriously and the small unseen hidden under them cent up a sweet as the two men trod them down on their leisurely way across the fields and it was with a certain sense of relief from mental strain that lifted his hat and let the soft breeze fan his temples which and very strangely as though with a weight of pent up tears he was very silent and generally accustomed to talk for two seemed disposed to an equal the few	33
hours they had spent in the society of and her weird had given both men subject for various thoughts which neither of them were inclined to express to one another in particular was aware of a certain irritation and uneasiness of mind which troubled him greatly and he looked at god s good man his companion with impatience the long legged red haired poet was decidedly in his way at the present moment he would rather have heen alone he determined in any case not to ask him to enter the garden more of his society would be intolerable they would part at the gate fm afraid i m you mr said the unconscious object of his just then i am dull i feel myself under a cloud pray excuse it i the expression of his face was and john felt a touch of at the nature of his own mental attitude towards the harmless moon calf don t he said with a frank smile i myself am not in a humour i think miss s music has not only put something into us but taken something out of us as well you are right said you are perfectly right and you express the emotion it was extraordinary music but that voice that voice will be a wonder of the world i j it is a wonder rejoined if the girl keeps her health and does not break down from nervous excitement and she will have a dazzling career i think miss will take every possible care of her miss is very lovely said i have made up my mind on that point at last when i first saw her i was not convinced her features are imperfect but they are and expressive and in the expression there is a subtle beauty which is quite then again my own of women have always been tall and yet in miss we have a woman who is without being tall it is the air without the material inches and i am now satisfied that the former is more fascinating than the latter though i admit that it was once my dream to die upon the breast of a tall woman laughed he was vexed to be compelled to listen to s criticism of s physical charms yet he was powerless to offer any remonstrance but after all continued gazing up into the pink and clouds of the sunset the tall woman might possibly from the very coldness of her height be un sympathetic she might be seems eve more than or then again there are god s good man so many large women they are common they the public highway they tower forth in theatre and nod from the elevation of opera boxes out the view of the stage they are more often than therefore let me not cling to an illusion which will not bear analysis for miss is not a tall woman for that matter is she short she is indescribable and therefore entirely i john said nothing but only walked on a trifle more quickly you are perhaps not an admirer of the fair sex pursued his companion and therefore my observations awaken no sympathy in your mind i never discuss women replied i am not a poet you see and he smiled i am merely a middle aged parson you can hardly expect me to share in your youthful you are going up the of life i am travelling down we cannot see things from the same here they left the fields and came to the high road from thence a few more paces brought them to the gate of the but i quite agree with you in your admiration of miss she seems a most kindly and charming lady and i believe i am sure and his remarks become somewhat rambling and yes i am sure she will try to do good in the village now that she has taken up her residence here that is of course if she stays she may get tired of country life that is quite probable but it is of course a good thing to have a strong social influence in the neighbourhood especially a woman s influence and i should say miss will make herself useful and beloved in the parish at this period he caught s eyes fixed upon him somewhat and that he was getting quite in his talk he checked himself abruptly and swung open his garden gate fm sorry i can t ask you in just now he said i have some pressing work to do don t mention it and clasped him by the hand fervently i would not intrude upon you for worlds you must be alone of course you are delightful yes my dear you are delicious so new so fresh it is a privilege to you good bye for the moment i may come and talk to you another time oh certainly by all means and shaking hands with all the vigour s grasp enforced upon him god s good man escaped at last into the of his own garden and hastened under the covering shadow of the trees that bordered the lawn watched him disappear and then went on his own way with a gratified air of i complacency those who never discuss women are apt to be most impressed by them he reflected the of a on a pin are not so complex or interesting as the of a parson s senses i now a remarkable might be made my good friend i kindly look where you are going this last remark was addressed to a half drunken man who pushed past him roughly without apology almost him	33
off the foot path it was who hearing himself spoken to glanced round sullenly with a muttered oath and stumbled on that is miss s dismissed agent said pausing a moment to watch his uncertain progress up the road what an objectionable beast he walked on and his former train of thought being entirely disturbed he went to the mother where he was a frequent visitor his elaborate to mrs him to hear from that lady s pious lips all the latest news scandal and gossip true or concerning the whole neighbourhood meanwhile finding himself once more alone in his own domain breathed freely the faithful who had passed all the hours of his master s absence on guard by the window of the vacant study came running to meet him as he set foot upon the lawn three or four that were brooding on the old and roof of the rose aloft in a short flight and descended again softly as though with satisfaction at his return and there was a soothing silence everywhere the work of the day being done and having left the garden trim and fair to its own sweet solitude and calm gently patting his dog s rough head as the animal sprang up to him with joyous short of welcome john looked about him quietly for a moment or two with an expression in his eyes that was somewhat dreamy and pathetic i have known the old place so long and loved every comer of it he murmured and yet to day it seems all strange and the glow of the sunset struck a red against the walls of his house and beat out twinkling diamond flashes from the god s good man windows the masses of and roses shone forth in vivid clusters as though inwardly illuminated the warmth and ecstasy of life seemed in every flush of colour every shaft of light and the wild singing of unseen descending to their nests and shaking out their songs as it seemed like of music breaking asunder in the dear expressed the rapture of heaven wedded to the living breathing joys of earth the and radiance of the air affected with a sudden unwonted sense of fatigue and pain and pressing one hand across his eyes he shut out the of blue sky and green grass for a moment s then went slowly and with bent head into his study here everything was very quiet and as it struck him then curiously lonely on his desk lay various notes and messages and accounts the usual sort of paper litter that accumulated under his hands every day two op three visiting cards had been left for him during his absence one on the part of the local doctor a very clever and excellent fellow named james who was familiarly called by the villagers and who often joined of an evening to play a game of with him and another bearing the neat mrs the at home he smiled mrs was a county lady wife of a gentleman at ease who did nothing but hunt and who never had done anything in all his life but hunt she was also the mother of daughters and her calls on the reverend john were marked by a polite and patient that seemed altogether admirable she lived some two miles out of st rest but always attended s church regularly driving thither with her family in a solemnly closed private of the true county type she professed great interest in all church matters on the ground that she was the daughter of a dead clergyman my poor father she was wont to say her sleek of grey hair on either side of her forehead with one long pale thin finger he was such a good man ah yes i and he had such a lovely mind my mother was a this last announcement generally thrown in casually was apt to be startling to the and it was not till the of the family had been duly explained to the anxious that it was seen how important and all god s good man it was to have had a for one s maternal parent the were a noted old stock in so it appeared and to be connected with a was to certain provincial minds of limited perception a complete of superior birth and breeding was well accustomed to receiving a call from mrs about every ten days or so and he did his utmost best to her at all points was his ready in this harmless conspiracy and promptly gave him due warning whenever the or was seen bearing down upon the village with the result that on the arrival of the of the at the door she was met by the with a smile and the statement mr is out then when according to the laws of etiquette had to return the lady s visit again assisted him by watching and waiting till he could inform him as ow he d seen that blessed old woman out with er ly to they won t likely be back for a couple of hours at least whereupon straightway took a swinging walk up to the deposited his card with the footman for the absent ly and returned again in peace to his own dwelling this afternoon he had again as usual missed the worthy lady and he set aside her card the smile with which he had glanced at it changing suddenly to a sigh of somewhat wearied impatience surely there was something unusually dark and solitary in the aspect of the room to which for so many years he had been accustomed and where he had generally found comfort and contentment the vivid hues of the sunset were declining rapidly and the solemn shadow of evening was creeping	33
up over the sky and outer landscape but something heavier than the mild obscurity of approaching night seemed weighing on the air around him which oppressed his nerves and his soul he stood turning over the papers on his desk in a frame of mind which left him uncertain how to employ himself whether to read to write to finish a sketch of the on the river which he had yesterday begun or to combat with his own mood its meaning and conquer its tendency there came a light tap at his door and the maid entered with a letter the last post sir only one for you he took it up indifferently as the girl retired then uttered a slight exclamation of pleasure god s good man from he said half dear old fellow i have not heard from him since new year he opened the letter and to read the interested look in his eyes deepened and he moved nearer to the open window to avail himself as much as possible of the swiftly light dear it ran the spirit moves me to write to you not only because it occurs to me that i have failed to do so for a long time but also because i feel a certain necessity for thought to who like yourself is accustomed to the habit of thinking the tendency of the majority nowadays is or so it appears to me to forget the purpose for which the brain was designed or rather to use it for no higher object than that for which it is employed by the brute creation namely to consider the ways and means of securing food and then to on the self gratification which follows the of appetite in fact to rot and rot and thereby hangs a tale i but before i enter into any particulars of my own special phase or mood let me ask how it with you in your small and secluded parish all must be well i imagine otherwise doubtless i should have heard it seems only the other day that i came at your request to your beautiful little church of the saint s rest yet seven years have rolled away since then leaving tracks of age on me as probably on you also my dear fellow i though you have always carried old time on your back more lightly and easily than i to me he has ever been the nights inexorable old man of the sea whose habit i to kill unless killed at i feel myself either or i wonder which you wiu judge the most fitting for me when we next meet mind aiid memory play me strange tricks in my brief moments of solitude and whenever i think of you i imagine it can only be yesterday that we two college lads walked and talked together in the drowsy old streets of oxford and made our various plans for our future lives with all the and of youth which is so delightful while it lasts despite the miserable it upon us one thing however which i gained in the past time and which has never deceived me is your friendship and how much i owe to you no one but myself can ever tell good god i how superior you always and are to me i why did you yourself so completely god s good man for my sake i often ask this question and except for the fact that it would be impossible to you to even make an attempt to for mere ambition anyone for whom you had a deep affection i cannot imagine any answer but as matters have turned out with me i think it might have been better after all had you been in my place and i in yours a small cure of souls would have put my mental fibre to less torture than the crowding cares of my which me more and more as they increase many things seem to me hopeless utterly i the shadow of a defiant all triumphant evil abroad everywhere and the clergy are as much affected by it as the i feel that the world is far more christ less to day after two thousand years of preaching and teaching than it was in the time of how has this happened whose the fault there is only one reply it is the church itself that has failed the message of salvation the gospel of love these are as god bom and true as ever they were but the and teachers of the divine creed are to blame the men who quarrel among themselves over forms and ceremonies instead of their energies on to others and i confess i find myself often at a loss to dispose church affairs in such wise as to secure at one and the same time peace and satisfaction amongst the clergy me with proper devotion to the mental and physical needs of the thousands who have a right yes a right to expect spiritual comfort and material from those who profess by their vows of to be faithful and disinterested servants of christ i you remember how we used to talk religious matters over when we were young and enthusiastic men studying for the church you will easily recall the indignation and with which we all new and old and turned our backs with mingled pity and scorn on every writer of theories such influences as weighing but lightly in the balance of belief and making little or no effect on the minds of the majority we did not then grasp in its full measure the meaning of what is to day called the of life that blind brutal of humanity over every comer and quarter of the earth a which it is	33
impossible to check or to divert and which arises out of a nameless sense of panic and of disaster i like of wild cattle on the who scent invisible fire and begin to gallop furiously headlong god s good man anywhere and everywhere before the first red gleam of the devouring element breaks from the of dry grass and so do the nations and appear to me today fear stricken and they rush hither and thither in search of refuge from themselves and from each other yet are all the while driven along unconsciously in masses as though swept by the breath of some mysterious them on to their own disaster i feel the end approaching sometimes i almost see it and with the near touch of a shuddering future catastrophe on me i am often disposed to agree with sad king solomon that after all there is nothing better for a man than that he should eat drink and be merry all the days of his life for i grow tired of my own efforts to lift the burden of human sorrow which is laid upon me aloft on the fainting wings of prayer to a god who seems wholly mind i say seems so do not start away from my words and judge me as beginning to in the faith that formerly inspired me i confess to an intense fatigue and the constant consciousness of human wretchedness me down to the dust of spiritual for i can but think that if god were indeed merciful and full of loving kindness he would not he could not endure the constant spectacle of man s devilish injustice to his brother man i have no right to permit myself to indulge in such reflections as these i know yet they have gained such hold on me that i have had serious thoughts of my but this is a matter other changes in my life on which i should like to have some long friendly talks with you before taking any decisive step your own attitude of mind towards the calling and election you have chosen has always seemed to me so pre eminently pure and lofty that i should condemn my own feelings even more than i do were i to allow the twin forces of and despair to possess me utterly without an attempt to bring them under your sane and the more so as you know all my personal history and life long sorrow and this brings me to the main point of my letter which is that i should much like to see you if you can spare me two or three days of your company any time before the end of august try to arrange an early visit though i know how ill your can spare you and how more than likely they are to at your absence you are to be envied in having secured so much affection and god s good man confidence in the parish you control and every day i feel more and more how wisely you have chosen your lot in that comparative obscurity which at one time seemed to those who know your brilliant gifts a waste of life and opportunity of course you are not without jealous enemies no true soul ever is sir still occasionally sends me a note of information as to something you have or have not done to the church on which you have spent the greater part of your personal fortune and the minister at appears to think that i should assist him by heading a list to obtain funds for the purpose of making his church as perfect a of architecture as yours due have been made as to the nature and needs of his and it appears that only twenty five persons on an average ever attend his and that the building for which he is a brick edifice built in and deliberately allowed to decay by and neglect however sir is taking some interest in it so i am given to understand and perhaps in restoring a modem chapel he will be able to console himself for the manner in which you stripped off his tin roof from your old church walls i am sorry to hear that the historic house of s is again inhabited and by one who is likely to be a most neighbour to you here unable to read very quickly at the window stepped out on the lawn still holding the letter close to his eyes a most neighbour he murmured yes now let me see where is that phrase oh here it is a most neighbour and he read on i allude to miss the only child of the late who was killed some years ago in the hunting field the girl was taken away at her father s death by her uncle who having sown an unusual crop of wild had married one of those wealthy american women to whom the sun itself appears more than a gold piece and of course between the two she had a very bad training was the worst and of the family and his wife has been known for years as a particularly hardened member of the smart set under their miss or van as appears to be familiarly known and called in society has attained a rather and when i heard the other day that she had left her aunt s house in a fit of god s good man temper and had gone to her own old house to live i thought at once of you with a pang of pity for if i remember rightly you have a great opinion of the as an of times and have always been rather glad that it was left to itself without any modem improvement or i can imagine nothing worse to your	33
mind than the presence of a smart lady in the village of st best i however you may take heart of grace as it is not likely she will stay there long that she is shortly to be married to lord he who will be duke of and owner of that splendid but half ruined pile castle she has it appears kept this poor gentleman dancing attendance on her for a sufficient time to make evident to the world her desire to secure his title and her present sudden capricious retirement into country life is to be a mere to draw him more swiftly on to his matrimonial doom no doubt he has an eye on mrs s millions which her niece would inherit in the event of her marrying a future english duke still from what i gather he would deserve some compensation for his life s happiness with such a very doubtful partner but i i am information with which you are no doubt already quite familiar and in all probability van is not to cross your path at any time as among her other reported characteristics is that of a cheap scorn for religion a scorn which sits so on our modem women and so much disaster in the future they being the mothers of the coming race i expect the only circumstance likely to trouble your calm and pleasant routine of life and labour is that the present occupation of s may have stopped some of your romantic in the beautiful woods surrounding it may never any greater care disturb you my dear fellow for even that is one which as i have pointed out to you will be of brief duration let me know when you think you will be able to come and spend a couple of days here and i will clear my work ahead in order to leave time free for an entire of my soul to you as in the days of our youth so long ago sincerely and affectionately yours h a slowly and with folded up the letter and put it in his pocket with a kind of dazed air he looked about him vaguely surprised that the evening seemed to have fallen so soon streaks of the sunset still glowed god s good man here and there in the sky but the dense purple of the night had steadily over the spaces of the air and just above the highest bough of the apple tree on the lawn the planet bravely in all its silver of pride as the evening star low and sweet on the fragrant silence came the of a and the soft sound of the river flowing among the rushes and pushing against the shore a sudden sense of pain stung s eyes pressing them with one hand he found it wet with tears no no not with tears merely with the moisture of strain and fatigue his sight was not so good as it used to be of course he was getting old and bishop s small had been difficult to by the half light all at once something burning and passionate stirred in him a wave of indignation that poured itself swiftly through every channel of his clean and honest blood and he involuntarily clenched his hand what there are in the world i he said aloud and fiercely what i peeping at him over the apple boughs gave out a diamond like sparkle as though she were no greater thing than a loving eye the unseen its voice to richer broke into a fuller deeper more stars flew like shining flies into space and on the lowest line of the western horizon a white cloud fringed with silver floated slowly the noiseless herald of the coming moon but saw nothing of the beautiful of the evening into night his thoughts were elsewhere and he mused sorrowfully how do i know how can i tell the clear eyes may be trained to deceive the smile of the sweet all too sweet mouth may be the pretty impulsive confiding manner may be a mere trick and after all what is it to me i demand of myself plainly and fairly what is it to me he gave a kind of unconscious despairing gesture waa there some devil in his soul whom he was bound to with by and prayer and conquer in the end or was it an angel that had entered there before whose heavenly aspect he must kneel and why this new and appalling loneliness which had struck himself and his as with an earthquake shock shaking the foundations of all that had seemed so safe and secure why this feverish restlessness in his mind which forbade him to occupy himself with any of the work waiting for him to do and which god s good man made um unhappy and ill at ease for no visible or reasonable cause he walked slowly across the lawn to his favourite seat under the apple tree and there beneath the scented boughs with the evening gathering on the grass at his feet he tried to face the problem that troubled his own inner consciousness let me brave it out i he said let me and master the thoughts that seek to master me otherwise i am no man but merely a straw to be caught by the idle wind of an emotion why should i the analysis of what i feel to be true of myself for after all it is only a weakness of nature a sense of regret and loss a knowledge of something i have missed in life all surely if in file beginning she is only a woman i am only a man there is more than at first apparent	33
assure you i an my she be that proud an all ye wants to do is just to along an choose your own thank you mr i said with his usual patient courtesy thank you very much i i will certainly come glad to hear the cow is better and is miss well she s that f rejoined the that only the pigs can beat i ll be er you ll to then oh yes by all means certainly i most kind of you i m sure i good evening i same t ye an thank ye kindly john escaped at last into his own solitary my work i he said with a faint smile as he seated himself at his desk i must do my work i i must attend to the pigs as much as anything else in the parish i my work i was the first sunday in july under a sky of pure and blue the village of st best lay in and foliage loveliness all the glory of the morning sunshine and the full summer bathing it in s of living gold it had reached the perfect height of its with the full of its and fields and witb all the wealth of c our which was like spray against the dark brown roofs of its cottages by the masses of roses red and white tliat as high as the tops of the chimneys and turning back from thence dropped downwards again in a of blossoms and over windows with a gay and gracious air like hung up for some great festival the stillness of the seventh day s pause was in the air even the darting in and out from their prettily contrived nests under the old fashioned seemed less busy less active on their bright and to and fro with a gliding ease suggestive of happy and peace the doors of the church were set wide open and adam frost and was busy inside the building placing the chairs as was his usual sunday custom in orderly rows for the coming congregation it was about half past ten and the bell arriving and ascending into the were beginning to tone the bells before the full for the eleven o clock service when arrayed in his sunday best strolled with a casual air into the churchyard looked round for a minute or two and then with some apparent hesitation entered the church porch lifting his cap reverently as he did so once there he softly to attract frost s attention but that individual was too much engrossed with his work to heed any lesser sound than the grating of the chairs he was arranging waited patiently standing near the carved till by chance the turned and saw him whereupon he beckoned with a d forefinger adam a word wi ye adam came down the somewhat reluctantly his god s good man showing signs of evident and what now he demanded in a hoarse whisper can t ye see tm busy c you re busy i knows you re busy returned soothingly i ain t goin to keep ye back all i wants to know is ef it s true ef what s true this ere the folks are all a about that miss as got a party o f ash at the an that they re to church this true enough i said frost don t ye see me a chairs for em near the there ll be what s called a crush i can tell ye for there ain t none too much room in the church at the best o times for our own poor folk but when rich folks comes as well we ll be put to it to seat em he comes down to me nigh an hour ago an he he miss as friends from er an they re to church this find room an i to im i ll do my best but there ain t no reserve seats in the o god an them as comes served ay it s true enough they re a but ow it got round in the village i don t know i ain t a ill news travels fast said no doubt called on his young at the mother an told er to put on er best at she s a for information any bit o news runs right through er as though she was a wire ave ye told as ow miss an visitors is a to ear im preach no replied adam with some vigour i ain t told im an i ain t goin to neither i looked into the crown of his cap and finding his handkerchief there wiped the top of his head with it it be powerful warm this adam he said powerful warm it be so you ain t goin to tell an for why may i ask if to be so bold look ere rejoined the speaking slowly and emphatically e be a rare good man m no better man an what he s goin to say to us this blessed sunday is all settled like he s been it out all the week he knows what s what tain t for us tain t for you nor me to go im out an im o the world god s gk od man the flesh an the devil all a to church he s been a to the lord almighty to put the spirit into im an he s got it just there and adam touched his breast significantly now if i goes or you goes and to im there s f ash folks from ere to look at ye an listen to ye an for all we kin tell make mock o ye as well as	33
o the gospel itself in their arts d ye think he d be any the better for it no no i i say leave alone don t upset im let im come out of is wise an peaceful like as he do an let im as the fiery tongues from heaven moves im an as if there t no fashion nor silly nonsense in the world he s best so you b me he s best i and his cap round and round but miss miss ain t been to church once till now said adam an she s only now to show it to her friends i doesn t want to think ard of her for she s a sweet looking little lady an a kind one an my just er an what my baby likes i m bound to like too but i do she ain t a an that once to church s again an lar ever anyway it s for you an me to leave to the lord an the fiery tongues we ain t no call to interfere with im by im who s to church an who ain t anyone s free to enter the o god rich or poor an tain t a world s wonder if strangers at the saint s as well as our own folk here the bells began to ring in perfect with regular and sweet i must go continued adam i ain t done the chairs yet an it s a quarter to eleven we ll be em all ere d he hurried into the church again just as miss and her boy and girl choir entered the churchyard and seeing them and also perceiving in the near distance the slow halting figure of who made it a point never to be a minute late for divine service rightly concluded that there was no time now even if he were disposed to such a course to that he would have to preach to fashionable folks that morning adam s right he reflected an yet it do worry me a bit to think of im out of is garden like what s a for im for he s been rare god s good man quiet lately y as if he was an from to night an he ain t bin nowhere an no one bin to see im that chap which he stayed a an to im an what s mighty queer to me is that he ain t bin over is garden like he used to he don t seem to care no more whether the flowers or doesn t them up against the west wall now a finer show i never seen an as for the they re a perfect but he don t notice em much an he s not so keen on his water lilies as i he would be for they re better this year than they ve ever done before an the all a up on top o the river just lovely an as for vegetables i he don t seem to know whether ti beans or peas he as there s a kind o sap gone out o the garden this summer for all that it s so fine an there s a o his meditations were put to an end by the continuous arrival of all the villagers coming to church by and and then by half and they filed in through the churchyard exchanging brief greetings with one another as they passed quietly into the sacred edifice where the soft strains of the organ now began to mingle with the outside of the bells still lingered near the porch moved by a curiosity he wa to see the first glimpse of the people who were staying at the but as yet there was no sign of any one of them though the time wanted only minutes to eleven the familiar click of the latch of the gate which divided the church from the garden made him turn his head in that direction to watch his master approaching the scene of his morning s the john walked slowly with uplifted head and tranquil and as he turned aside up the narrow path which led to the at the back of the church the faithful felt a sudden pang looked too good for this world he thought his dignity of movement his serene and steadfast eyes his fine thoughtful though somewhat pale countenance were all expressive of that repose and integrity of which lifts a man above the common level and unconsciously to himself wins for him the silent honour and respect of all his fellows and yet there was a touch of pathetic about him too as of one who is with yet not of the ordinary joys hopes and loves of humanity and it was this which god s good man moved though that simple rustic would have been at a loss to express the sense of what he felt in words however there was no more leisure for thinking if he wished to be in his place at the commencement of service the servants from s were just entering the as usual by the housekeeper mrs and her deaf but ever dutiful husband and though longed to ask one of them if miss and her guests were really coming he hesitated and in that moment of hesitation the whole domestic passed into church before him and he judged it best and wisest to follow quickly in silence lest when prayers began his master should note his absence the building was very full and it was difficult to see where if any strangers did arrive they could be miss in her capacity as was still playing the opening voluntary but despite the	33
fact that there was no apparent disturbance of the usual order of things there was a certain air of hushed among the people which was decidedly foreign to the normal atmosphere of st rest the village looked at each other s hats with interest the lads with their ties and more and their caps more behind their legs and the most placid looking personage in the whole congregation was who in a very clean with a small red rose in his and his silvery hair parted on either side and just touching his shoulders sat in his own special comer not far from the pulpit leaning on his stick and listening with attention to the fall and flow of the organ music as it swept round him in soft and ever of sound the bells ceased and eleven o clock struck slowly from the church tower at the last stroke the reverend john entered the in his plain white as new f snow and as he knelt for a moment in silent devotion the voluntary ended with a grave long sustained a pause and then the rose and faced his little flock his hand laid on the open book of common prayer when the wicked man away from his wickedness that he hath committed and that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive s voice rang clear and the sunshine pouring through the plain glass of the high rose window behind and above him shed over the ancient god s good man in front of the altar and struck from its whiteness a kind of double light which round his tall slight figure made it stand out in singularly bold relief if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us but if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to us from all a ripple of gay laughter here echoed in through the church doors which were left open for air on account of the great heat of the day there was an uneasy movement in the congregation some men and women glanced at one another that light careless laughter was distinctly the reverend john drew himself up a little more rigidly erect and his face grew a shade paler steadily he read on dearly beloved brethren the scripture us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness and that we should not nor them before the face of almighty god our heavenly father but confess them with an humble lowly penitent and obedient heart he ceased abruptly a glimmer of colour a soft gliding of silken skirts an affectation of tip toe movement up the a wave of indescribable artificial perfume and then a general stir and head turning among the people showed that a new and element had suddenly into the simple human material whereof the village of st rest was composed an element altogether strange to it not to say and saw and bit his lips hard his hand instinctively clenched itself nervously on the book of common prayer but his rigid attitude did not and he remained mute his eyes fixed steadily on the dressed new comers who greatly embarrassed by the interruption their late entrance had caused an interruption in so marked a manner by the silence of the minister made haste to take the chairs pointed out to them by the with faces and lowered eyelids it was a new and most unpleasant experience for them they did not know of course that it was s habit to pause in whatever part of the service he was reading if anyone came in late to wait till the took their places and then to begin the interrupted sentence over again a habit which had effectually succeeded in making all his punctual but whose guests they were who was god s good man responsible as their hostess for bringing them to church at all and who herself with was the last to enter after service had begun felt a rebellious wave of colour rushing tip to her brows it was very rude of mr she thought to stop short in his reading and cause the whole congregation to turn and stare curiously at herself and her friends just because they were a little bit behind time i it exposed them all to public rebuke i and when the stir caused by their entrance had subsided she stood up almost lifting her graceful head her soft cheeks glowing and her eyes flashing looking twenty times prettier even than usual as she opened her bound prayer book with a careless not to say indifferent air as though her thoughts were thousands of miles away from st rest and all belonging to it glancing at the different members of her party she was glad that one of them at least lady had secured a front seat for her was never content unless she was well to the foremost of everything she was a beauty the darling of the society press and the model of all and she could hardly be expected to put up with any obscure comer even in a church if she ever went to the heaven of legend one could well imagine st peter standing aside for her to pass close beside her was another wonderful looking woman a mrs a leader in society who went everywhere did everything wore the coat skirt or hat from paris directly it was put on the market and wrote accounts of herself and her to the american press under a de she was not like lady celebrated for her beauty but for her youth her face without being in the least interesting or charming was smooth and coloured without a line of thought	33
or a of care upon it her eyes were bright and quite baby like in their expression and her hair was of the loveliest red she had a figure which was the envy of all of and as she was wont to say of herself it would have been difficult to find fault with the of her outward appearance painters and would have found her an to nature but then mrs had no acquaintance with painters and she thought them queer people with very improper ideas she was exceedingly put out by s abrupt pause in his reading of the dearly beloved while she and the other members of the into their places and when he god s good man the she herself by staring at him through a long handled mounted but she did not succeed in him at all or in even his attention so she merely shrugged her shoulders with what the french call an air the momentary confusion caused by the pause in the service soon passed and the spirit of calm again settled on the scene after the general confession but was deeply conscious of hurt and vexation it was too bad of mr she kept on saying to herself over and over again too bad i her friends and herself were only ye or six minutes late and to have stopped in his reading of the service like that to put them all to shame was unkind yes unkind she said in her vexed soul vexed all the more because she was inwardly conscious was right and herself wrong she knew well enough that she could have reached the church at eleven had she chosen and have brought her friends punctual to time as well she knew it was neither nor respectful to interrupt divine worship but she was too irritated to reason the matter out calmly just then all she could think of was that she and her london guests had received a reproof from the minister of the parish silent but none the less severe before all the villagers before her own servants and on the first occasion of her coming to church too she could not get over it if he can see me she thought he will know i am angry little spirit i as if it mattered to whether she was angry or not he saw her well enough he noted her face red as a rose with its play of expression set in its frame of golden brown hair it flitted between his eyes and the book of common prayer and when he ceased reading while the village choir rendered slightly nervous by the presence of the quality the o come let us sing unto the lord he was conscious of a sudden arising as he knew from the strain he had put upon himself for the past few minutes he was however quite calm and self possessed when he rose to read the lessons of the day and the service proceeded as usual in the perfectly simple style of that pure and part of christ s holy catholic church is established in this realm now and then his attention once or twice his eyes rested on the well dressed group directly opposite to him with a kind of vague regret and doubt there god s good man was an emotion working in his soul to which he could scarcely give a name instinctively he was conscious that a certain embarrassment and uneasiness affected the ordinary members of his congregation he knew that their minds were and distracted that the girls and women were and almost open mouthed at the sight of the fashionable and wondrous which the ladies miss s house party wore and were dissatisfied with their own clothing in consequence and that the lads and men felt themselves to be awkward uncouth and foolish in the near presence of personages belonging to quite another sphere than their own he knew that the of this world had by a temporary fire fly glitter fascinated the simple souls that had been glad to dwell for a space on the contemplation of spiritual and heavenly things he saw that the lesson of christ s love to humanity was scarcely ii the contemplation of how very much humanity was able to do for itself even without christ s love provided it had money and the devil to push it on i he sighed a little and certain words in the letter of his friend bishop came back to his memory many things seem to me hopeless utterly grow tired of my own efforts to lift the burden which is laid upon me then other and stronger thoughts came to him and when the time arrived to read the a rush of passion and vigorous intensity filled him with a force far greater than he knew said afterwards that she should never forget the thrill that ran through her like a shock of when he proclaimed from the altar god these words and said thou shalt have none other gods but me looking up at this moment she saw in the aisle on her left hand side he too was staring at as though he saw the figure of a saint in a vision but kept her face hidden listening in a kind of awe as each was as it seemed and insisted upon by the clear voice that had no tone of in its whole scale thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour lady forgot to her head in the usual studied way which she knew was so becoming to her the not was so emphatic an unpleasant shiver ran through her clothed person dear me i how often and often god s good man she had borne false witness	33
not only against her neighbour but against she could think of or talk about i where could be the fun of living if you must not swear to as many lies about your neighbour as possible no or would be left in the delicate of society the minister of st rest was really quite objectionable a a noisy creature i and both she and mrs murmured to each other that they did not like him so loud i said lady breathing the words delicately against her friend s red hair so provincial rejoined mrs in the same adding to her remark the fervent lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law i one very gratifying circumstance to these ladies however and one that considerably astonished all the members of miss s house party as well as miss herself was that no collection was made neither the church the poor nor some distant mission to the heathen served as any excuse for begging in the shrine of the saint s rest no of a money box or was to be seen anywhere and this fact pre disposed them to survey s face and figure with critical attention as he left the and ascended the pulpit during the singing of the lord is my shepherd at the opening of that quaint and simple hymn glanced at miss and with a little suggestive smile and caught their appealing glances then as the chorus of boys and girls began she raised her voice as the heading and like a thread of gold it round all the notes and tied them together in clear and lovely the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he me down to lie in pleasant fields where the lilies grow and the river by in the congregation stared and seemed stricken with sudden such singing they had never heard before mrs put up her it s s creature she whispered the ugly child she picked up in paris i suppose it really is a voice god s good man it really is i think responded lady languidly turning her fair head to look at the plain sallow girl with the black hair whom she had only seen for a few minutes on her arrival at s the previous day and whom she had scarcely noticed but saw her not her whole soul was in her singing and she had no glance even for who gazing at her as if she were already the in an opera listened the lord is my shepherd he me in the depth of a desert land and lest i should in the darkness slip he me by the hand felt a in her throat and her eyes unconsciously filled with tears how sweet that hymn was how very sweet tender memories of her father crowded upon her her mother s face grown familiar to her sight from her daily visits to the now no longer veiled picture in the gallery shone out upon her from the altar like a angel above the white where the word sparkled jewel like in the sunshine and she began to feel that after all there was something in the christian faith that was and to the soul the lord is my shepherd i shall not want my mind on him is stayed and though through the valley of death i walk i shall not be afraid pure and true rang s young fresh and glorious voice carrying all the voices of the children with it on the waves of the organ and an impression of high exaltation serenity and peace rested on the whole congregation with the singing of the last verse the lord is my shepherd o shepherd sweet leave me not here to stray but guide me safe to thy heavenly fold and keep me there i pray amen during the silence that immediately followed stood erect in the pulpit looking down upon the people he saw s face he saw all the eyes of her london friends fixed on him with a more or less critical and god s good man stare he saw his own flock waiting for his first word with their usual air of respectful attention every small point and detail in his surroundings suddenly to his sight even the little rose in old s caught his eye with an almost the soft of the birds outside sounded close and loud the of a bee that had found its way into the church and was now against a window in its to pass through what seemed to itself clear space made quite an noise his heart beat heavily he fancied he could hear it in his breast then all at once an of energy rushed upon him as though the fiery tongues of which adam frost had spoken were in very truth descending upon him s face there it was so so bright and proud and in its every feature and the old french roses growing in her garden borders could not show a prettier colour than her cheeks i he lifted his hands let us pray the villagers all dropped on their knees the house party politely bent their heads supreme creator of the universe without whose power and permission no thought is ever in the brain of thy creature man be pleased to teach me thy unworthy servant thy will and law this day that i may speak to this congregation even as thou shalt command without any care for myself or my words but in entire submission to thee and thy holy spirit i amen he rose the congregation rose with him some of the village folks exchanged uneasy glances with one another was their beloved quite himself he looked so very pale his eyes were so unusually bright	33
a long concerning how some of you can and may if you choose play with the gift god has bestowed upon each one of you i only desire to impress upon you all with the utmost earnestness that it is idle to say among yourselves we have no souls or the soul is an unknown quantity and cannot be proved the soul is as real god s good man and actual a part of you as the main is of the body and that you cannot see it touch it or put it under the surgeon s knife is no proof that it is not there you might as well say life itself does not exist because you cannot see its causes or the soul is the centre of your being the compass of your life journey the round which whether you will or not you shape your actions in this world for lie next if you lose that of motive you lose all your conduct your speech your expression in every movement and feature all show the and condition in which you are god is not and in many cases taking the grand majority of the human race neither is man i he paused the congregation was very quiet he felt rather than saw that s eyes were fixed upon him and he was perfectly aware that lady whom he recognised as he would have recognised an on account of the innumerable photographs of her which were on sale in the windows of every in every moderate sized town was gazing straight up at him with a bright mocking glance in which a suspicion of disdain and laughter moved by a sudden impulse he bent his own regard straight down upon her with an cool serenity an ugly frown her s brow at once and she lowered her eyelids angrily i say god is not he continued slowly neither is the miserable human being that has lost his or her soul may be assured that the gain of the whole world in exchange will prove but dead sea fruit bitter and and in the end wholly poisonous loss of the soul is marked by moral degradation and and this inward crumbling and of all noble and fine feeling into shows itself on the fairest face the form the man who lies against his neighbour for the sake of worldly convenience or personal revenge writes the lie in his own countenance as he it it its mark it can be seen by all who read it says plainly let not this man be trusted i the woman who is false and treacherous carries the on her features be they never so perfect the creature of clay who has lost soul likewise heart and the starved hopeless poverty of such an one is disclosed in him even if he be a world s moreover soul that delicate divine eternal essence is easily lost any earthly passion carried to excess will over god s good man it and sink it in an sea it can slip away in the pursuit of ambition in schemes for self in the building up of huge fortunes in the pomp and show and vanity of things it flies from selfishness and it can be lost in hate it can equally be lost in love i again he paused then went on yes for even in love that purest and most of human emotions the soul must have its way rather than the body loss of the soul in love means at love then becomes the mere corpse of itself and must needs decay with all other such dust like things in every sentiment in every thought in every hope in every action let us find the soul and never let it go for without it no great deed can be done no worthy task accomplished no life lived and in the sight of god it shall profit us nothing to be famous witty wealthy or admired if we are mere stuffed figures of clay without the breath of god as our life principle the simple peasant who has enough soup in him to reverently watch the sunset across the hills and think of god as the author of all that splendour is higher in the spiritual scale than the learned scholar who is too occupied with himself and his own small matters to notice whether it is a sunset or a house on fire the soup in a man should be his sense his sight his touch his very inmost and dearest centre the of all good the of all peace and hope and happiness it is tiie one and only thing to foster the one and only thing to save the only part of man whidi belonging as it does to god god will require again some of you here present to day will perhaps think for a little while on what i have said when you leave this church and others will at once forget it but think forget or remember as you choose the truth remains that all of you young and old rich and poor are endowed in your own selves with the making of an angel the soul within you which you may elect to keep or to lose is the infant of heaven it depends on you for care for it needs all your work and will to aid it in growing up to its full stature and perfection it shall profit you nothing if you gain the whole world and at death have naught to give to your maker but crumbling clay let the angel be ready the soul in you prepared and full winged for flight according to the power and purity with	33
their hostess to walk home leaving the village and villagers behind them and discussing as they went the morning s service and sermon in the usual brief and style common to fashionable church the principal impression they appeared to have on their minds was one of vague amusement the notion that any clergyman should have the impudence this was the word used by mrs to pause in the service because people came in late touched i e very of absurdity so against his own interests too said lady carelessly because where all the be if they offended their mr a thin gentleman with a assented to this proposition with a where indeed he considered that should not forget themselves they should show proper respect towards those on whom they depended for support mr depends on for support i believe said suddenly mr fixed his firmly in his left eye and stared at her he you surprise me it is funny isn t it pursued so unlike the smiled lady laughed outright are you trying to be you droll child she languidly oh no i m not trying replied with a quick flash of her dark eyes it comes quite easy you were talking about offending their now mr hasn t got any patron to offend he s his own patron has he purchased the then mr or to put it more has he obtained it through a friend at court i don t know anything about the how or the why or the when said but i know he owns the living and the church so of course if he chooses to show people what he thinks of them when they come in to service late he can do it if they don t like it he doesn t care he doesn t ask god s good man anybody for anything he doesn t even send round a collection plate no i noticed that i awfully jolly said a good natured looking man who had been walking beside a certain lord whose one joy in life was awfully game ought to make him quite famous i it ought it ought indeed i agreed i do not suppose there is another clergyman in england who the plate from the ip of the almighty it is so remote so very remote i think he s a funny sort of parson altogether said he doesn t beg borrow or steal he isn t a he isn t a and he speaks his queer isn t it very laughed lord i don t know another like him give you my word well he can t preach said lady i never heard quite such a stupid sermon ah the members of the house party glanced at one another to see if this verdict were generally apparently some differed in opinion didn t you like it asked my dear child who could like it such stuff and all that nonsense about the soul in these scientific days too i ah science science sighed mr dropping his with a sharp click against his top waistcoat where will it end nobody volunteered a reply to this profound proposition souls are noted for something else than being saved for heaven nowadays aren t they lady lord with a knowing smile lady s small rather hard mouth into a thin line i really don t know she said carelessly if you mean the social souls they are rather certainly and not always discreet but they are generally interesting much more so i should think than such souls as the parson preached about just now indeed yes agreed mrs i can imagine nothing more tiresome than to be a soul without a body climbing from height to height of a heaven where there is no night no sleep no rest for ever and ever simply god s good man dreadful but there i one only goes to church for form s sake just as an example to one s servants and when it s done don t you think it s best to forget it as soon as possible she raised her baby eyes as she put the question everybody laughed or rather honest laughter is not considered good form by certain sections of society a gentle imitation of the goat s is the most way for persons to give vent to the expression of mirth alone was grave and the conversation of her guests annoyed her though in london she had been quite well accustomed to hear people talk lightly and of religion and all religious subjects yet here in the quiet country things were different somehow god seemed nearer it was more difficult to and him and there was a greater sense of regret and humiliation in one s self for one s own lack of faith though at the same time it has to be reluctantly that in no quarter of the world is religious and sham so openly manifested as in the english provinces and especially in the small towns where notwithstanding the fact that all the sundays are passed in persistent church and chapel going the result of this sham piety is seen in the most back biting and mischief making on every week day but st best was not a town it was a tiny village apart utterly free from the petty pretensions of its nearest neighbour which considered itself almost on account of its modern red brick and into which its trades people retired as soon as they had made enough money to be able to pretend that they had never stood behind a counter in their lives st best on the contrary was simple in its tastes so simple as to be almost primitive particularly	33
the exquisite features of lady and at the same time note how completely the united forces of and self complacency had every from the countenance of mrs these two women were in a way notorious as leaders of their own special of social and political lady was known best among jew mrs among american kings of oil and steel each was in her own line a power each could large advances of money out of the pockets of to further certain schemes which were vaguely talked about but which never came to each had a little of young in attendance press boys whom they and flattered and persuaded to write concerning their wit wisdom and beauty and how they looked radiant in pink or dazzling in green contemplating first one and then the other of these ladies almost resolved to compose a poem about them entitled the and dividing it into two to the first to lady and the second to mrs nay it would be so new so fresh he mused with a bland anticipation of the flutter such a work might possibly cause among society dove and if am the truth were told so much more than don glancing up and down and across the hospitable board exquisitely arranged with the loveliest flowers and fruit and the most old silver he noticed that every woman of the party was painted and powdered except and her young the dining room of s was not a light apartment its oak walls and ceiling created shadow rather than and though the windows were large and lofty rising from the floor to the their panes were of very ow o god s good man stained glass so that the brightest sunshine only as it were through the deeply hues of rose and and squares painted with the arms of the and of days grateful and beautiful indeed was this mysteriously softened light to the ladies round the table and for a brief space they almost loved for her face was flushed and quite by powder like a s she will get so coarse if she lives in the country always i mrs confided softly to lord who vaguely murmured ah yes i i i quite without any idea of what the woman was talking about s pretty hair too was ruffled she having merely taken off her hat in the hall on her return from church without troubling to go up to her room and touch up her appearance as all the other ladies who had suffered from walking exercise had done and her eyes looked just a trifle tired found her charming with this shade of fatigue and upon her more charming than in her most radiant phases of vivacity her x each like skin warmed as it was by the sun was tinted with nature s own exquisite colouring and compared most with the art so freely displayed by her female friends on either side of her began to con verses in his head and he recalled the lines of century richard a face that s best by its own beauty and can alone command the rest and he caught himself wondering why whenever he came near the lady of the he was anxious to seem less artificial less affected and more of a man than his particular set had taught him to be the same desire moved him in the company of john therefore sex could have nothing to do with it was it soul that breath of god which had been spoken of in the pulpit that morning he could not however dwell upon this rather serious proposition at luncheon his thoughts being distracted by the conversation if conversation it could be called that was on either side of the table amidst the of plates and the of champagne it was neither brilliant witty nor brilliant witty and talk is god s good man never in modem society nowadays i would much rather listen to the conversation of in the common room of an asylum than to the of modem society in a modem drawing room said a late distinguished to the present for the always have the glimmering of an idea somewhere in their troubled brains but modem society has neither brains nor ideas sentences often and occasionally seemed most in favour with the house party and for a time of language flew about like the from dry timber under a s axe without shape or use or meaning it was a mere confused and senseless a in which took no part she sat very quietly looking from one face to the other at table with a critical interest these were the people she had met every day more or less in london some of them had visited her aunt constantly and had invited her out to dinners and at homes balls and race parties and all were considered to be very select in every form that is commended by an up to date down here in the stately old world surroundings of s they looked very strange to her nay even more than strange and with all their make up on could not have seemed more out of place than these popular persons in the historic house of her ancestors lady was perhaps the most remarkable revelation of the whole company had always admired with quite an extravagant admiration on account of her physical charm and grace and had also liked her sufficiently well to entirely the stories that were about the number of her that she was an open could not be denied but that she ever carried a beyond bounds would never have believed now however a new light seemed thrown upon her there was a touch of something base in her beauty a flash of cruelty	33
in her smile a hardness in her eyes looked at her wistfully now and then and was half sorry she had invited her the was so complete the luncheon went on and was soon over and coffee and were served all the women smoked with the exception of and old miss the rings of pale blue before s eyes in a dim cloud she had seen the same kind of mixed smoking going on before scores of times and yet now why was it tiiat she god s good man felt vaguely annoyed by a sense of and vulgarity t she could not her lovingly and every now and again waving away the smoke of his own cigar with one hand studied her face and tried to its expression she spoke but little and that chiefly to lord who was on her left hand side and how long are you going to stay in this jolly old kiss he asked all my life i hope she said with a little smile it is my own home you know oh yes i i know i but he hesitated for a moment but your aunt aunt and i don t quite agree said quietly she has been very kind to me in the past but since uncle s death things have not been just as pleasant you see i speak frankly besides fm getting on towards thirty it s time i lived my own life and to do something useful laughed you look more like eighteen than thirty he said why give yourself away is that giving myself away f and she raised her eyebrows i m not thirty yet i m twenty seven but s old enough to begin to take things seriously i ve made up my mind to live here at s and do all i can for the and the village i m sure i shall be perfectly happy how about getting married he her blue eyes darkened with a shade of offence the old story i she said men always think a woman must be married to be happy it doesn t at all follow i know heaps and heaps of married women and they are in anything but an state i would not change one of would you like to be another miss he suggested in a she smiled no but i would rather be miss than lady here she rose giving the signal for general to the drawing room the windows of this apartment were set open and a charming garden vista of lawn and and walk opened out before the eyes god s good man now for bridge said lady tm simply dying for a game so am ii declared mrs lord you ll play charmed fm sure was the ready response where shall we put the card tables near the window such an prospect i we ll have two tables or even three said lady i suppose most of us will play oh yes i why of course i should think so just what we re all longing such were the expressions of general delight and acceptance by the whole party join lady with pleasure i and lady sunken old eyes gleamed with an anxious light over the of flesh which encircled them as she promptly deserted miss who had been sitting next to her for the purpose of entertainment and in a moment there was a general gathering together in the wide of the window nook and an animated discussion as to who should play bridge and who should not watched the group silently there were varying shades of expression on her features she held s hand in her own and was listening to some of s observations on quite ordinary topics when suddenly with an impulsive movement she let go and with an excuse me i to went towards her guests she had made a resolve it would be an attempt to swim against the social current and it was difficulty and yet she was determined to do it if i am a coward now she thought i shall never be brave her heart beat and she could feel the blood throbbing nervously in her veins as she ent her mind to the attitude she was about to take up regardless of mockery or censure scraps of the window conversation fell on her ears i won forty pounds last wednesday it just paid my boot bill i said one young woman laughing carelessly than retorted a man next to her i had to pay a girl s losses to the time of a hundred it s all right though and he grinned is she pretty i want to make up five pounds this week observed mrs in the most and god s good man matter of fact way i ve won it all but a and fifty good for you rather said lord nodding approval i d like to get you for a partner i am considered lucky smiled mrs with an air of virtuous i always win something well let s begin at once we ll play all the afternoon said lady where are the tables and the cards ask but at that moment stepped gently into their midst her eyes shining her face very pale not on sunday please she said a stillness upon them all they gazed upon each other in sheer lady smiled not on sunday what are you talking about not what on sunday not bridge replied in her clear soft voice i do not allow it fresh glances of were exchanged the men and and turned themselves about on their heels the women simply stared lady burst out laughing ridiculous she exclaimed then flushed and bit her lip	33
knowing that such an was scarcely civil to her hostess but took no offence pray do not think me she said very sweetly i would not interfere with your pleasure in any way if i could possibly help it but in this instance i really must do so oh certainly miss we would not think of playing if you do not wish it these and similar expressions came from lord and one or two others my dear said mrs reproachfully you are really very odd i have myself seen you playing bridge sunday after sunday at your aunt s house in london why should you now suddenly object to your friends doing what you have so often done yourself flushed a pretty rose red in my aunt s house i had to do as my aunt wished mrs she said in my own house i do as wish here her face relaxed into a bright smile as she raised her candid blue eyes to the men standing about her i m sure god s good man u won t mind amusing yourselves with something else than cards just for one day will you come into the garden it s such a perfect afternoon the rose walk just opposite leads down to the bank of the river would some of you like to go on the water there are two boats ready there if you would and do forgive me for stopping your intended game you can play bridge every day in the week if you like but spare the sunday there was a brief awkward pause then turned her back indifferently on the whole party and stepped out on the lawn she was followed by mrs and both ladies gave vent to small smothered of mocking laughter as they sauntered across the grass side by side but did not care she had carried her point and was satisfied the sunday s in s always insisted upon by her father would not be by card playing and gambling under his daughter s sway that was enough for her a serene content dwelt in her eyes as she watched her guests and scatter themselves in sections of and all over the garden and grounds and she said the and kindest things when any of them passed her on their way telling them just where to find the prettiest and where to pick the fruit and flowers lord watched her with a sense of admiration for her pluck by jove i he thought i d rather have the guns in a pitched battle than have forbidden my own guests to play bridge on sunday wants nerve upon my soul it does and the little woman s got it you bet she has aloud he said i m awfully glad to be let off bridge miss i a day s is a positive boon do you play it so often then f she asked gently he flushed slightly too often i m afraid i but how can i help it one must do something to kill time i poor time said with a smile why should he be killed i would rather make much of him while i have him did not answer he lit a cigar and strolled away by himself to mrs just then re entered the from the garden herself vigorously with her handkerchief god s good man it is warm i she complained a burning sun so bad for the skin they are picking and eating them off the plants very nice i but quite and two of the men have taken a boat and gone on the water if you don t mind i shall rest and till dinner pray do so i returned kindly smiling despite herself mrs s life was well nigh spent in and various other processes for the prints of time from her carefully guarded but i was just going to ask to play us something won t you wait five minutes and hear her mrs sighed and sank into a chair nothing bored her so utterly as music but as it was only for five minutes she resigned herself to destiny and at a sign from went to the piano and played wild of polish and folk songs and making the instrument speak a thousand things of love and laughter of and death till the glorious rush of melody some of the m the garden and brought them the open window to listen when she ceased there was a little outbreak of applause and mrs rose languidly yes very nice i she said very nice indeed i but you know if you would only get one of those wonderful box one sees advertised so much in the papers the or or no i it s but i m not quite sure you would save such a lot of study and brain work for this poor child i and it quite as well i i m sure die could manage a thing i mean quite nicely for you when you want any music couldn t you my dear and she gazed at with a bland as she put the question s eyes sparkled with fun and satire i m sure i could she declared with the utmost seriousness it would be delightful i just like organ grinding only much more i should enjoy it of all things of course one ought never to use the brain in music not nowadays said mrs with conviction things have improved so much does everything so well and it is a pity to use up one s vital energy in doing what one of those box things can do better and do you too play music and addressed herself to who happened t god s good man standing near her he	33
made one of his fantastic not i madam i i am merely a writer one who makes and verses mrs waved him away with a hand on which at least five diamond rings sparkled oh dear i don t come near she said with a little affected laugh i simply hate poetry fm so sorry you write i can t why you do do you like it or are you doing it for you must t smiled and ran his fingers through his hair sticking it up rather on end much to mrs s i like it more than anything else in the world i he said fm doing it quite for myself and for nobody else and mrs gave him a glance of displeased surprise how dreadful here she turned to m au my dear for the present i as you won t allow any bridge fm going to sleep then i shall do for an hour may i have tea in my own room certainly i said thanks i she glided out with a of her silken skirts and a trail of perfume floating after her the three she left behind her exchanged amused glances wonderful woman i said and no doubt a perfectly happy one why of course i i don t suppose she has ever shed a tear lest it should make a and as she made these remarks patted her own thin sallow cheeks look at my poor face and hers mine is all lined and with tears and sad thoughts hasn t a and fm fourteen and she s forty oh dear why so much over all the sorrow and of life when i was young ah and why didn t you have a said they all laughed and then at s suggestion joined the rest of the guests in the garden that same evening when was dressing for dinner there came a tap at her bedroom door and in response to her come in entered may i speak to you alone for a minute said assented giving a sign to her maid to leave the room wed what is it said when the girl had gone anything wrong sank into a chair somewhat wearily and her god s good man beautiful violet eyes despite artistic touching up looked hard and tired not so far as i am concerned she said with a little laugh only i think you behaved very oddly this afternoon do you really mean that you object to bridge on sundays or was it only a put on it was a put off i responded gaily it stopped the intended game seriously i meant it and i do mean it there s too much bridge everywhere and i don t think it necessary i don t think it even decent to keep it going on sundays i suppose the parson of your parish has told you that i said lady suddenly s eyes met hers with a smile the parson of the parish has not presumed to dictate to me on my actions she said i should deeply resent it if he did well he had no eyes for anyone but you in the church this morning a could have seen that in the dark he was preaching at us and for you all the while i a slight flush swept over s cheeks then she laughed my dear i never thought you were imaginative the parson has nothing whatever to do with me why this is the first sunday i have ever been to his church you know i never go to church lady looked at her narrowly what have you left your aunt for she asked simply because she wants me to marry and i won t said emphatically why not first because i don t love him second because he has me by telling people that i am running after his title to excuse himself for running after aunt s millions and lastly but by no means because he is all men are said it s no us to that made no remark she was standing before her dressing table singing softly to herself while she fastened a tiny diamond arrow in her hair i suppose you re going to try and live good down here went on lady after a pause it s a mistake god s good man s no one bom of human flesh and blood can do it tou can t live good and enjoy yourself no said no certainly not for if you never do anything out of the line and never compromise yourself in any way society will be so furious with your superiority to itself that it will invent a thousand and hang them all on your name and you will never know how they arise and never be able to them does it matter find smiled if one s conscience is clear need one care what people say conscience exclaimed lady what an expression surely it s better to do something people can lay hold of and talk about than have them invent something you have never done they will give you no credit for virtue or honesty in this world unless you grow ugly and then perhaps they will admit you may be good and they will add she has no temptation to be otherwise i do not like your code of morality said quietly perhaps not but it s the only one that works in our day replied with some heat surely you know that i try to forget it as much as possible and s eyes were full of a sweet as she spoke especially here in my father s home oh well said lady with a touch of impatience you are a strange	33
girl you always were i you can live good or try to if you like and stay down here all alone with the and the but you ll be sick of it in six months i m sure you will i not a man will come near you they hate virtuous women nowadays and scarce a woman will come either save old and ugly you will kill yourself altogether by the effort life s too short to lose all the fun out of it for the sake of an ideal or a theory here the sounded for dinner turned away from her dressing table and confronted her friend her face grave and earnest in its expression and her eyes were very steadfast and clear i don t want what you call fun she said i want love i love seems to me the only good thing in life do you understand you ask me why i left my aunt it was to escape a marriage a marriage that would be a i god s good man positive hell to me for which neither wealth nor position could as for living good i am not trying that way i only want to understand myself and find out my own and and if i never do win the love want if no one ever cares for me at all then i shall be perfectly content to live and die unmarried what a laughed lady her white shoulders a better one than the usual divorce court result of some society marriages said calmly anyhow i d rather risk single than united i let us go down to dinner on all questions to souls and modem social we must agree to differ xx the next fortnight st best was a scene of constant and unwonted excitement there was a continual coming and going to and from s some of the guests went away to be replaced by others and some who had intended to spend only a week end and then depart stayed on moved by unaccountable fascination not only for their hostess but for the general of the and the old world tranquil and beautiful surroundings of the whole neighbourhood lord and mr brought their up to date cars with them terrible objects to the villagers whenever they dashed like escaped off an express train through the little street with their horns blowing violently as though in a fog a sea mrs frost was ever on the alert lest any of her smaller children should get in the way of these huge rubber tearing along at reckless speed and old resolutely refused to go outside his garden gate except on sundays not but what i ain t an cheerful to die whenever the lord a mighty sends for me he would say but i ain t got no fancy for bein and and was his own expression one that had both novelty and unfortunately it happened that a small pet dog belonging to one of the village no other than bob the admitted sweetheart of had been run over by mr as that gentleman driving his car himself and staring indifferently through his had timed his rush through the village to a minute and a half on a bet with lord and and was the only description to apply to the innocent little animal as it lay dead in the dust bob cried for days cried so much in fact over what he considered a wicked his mother sent for to console him and with his usual patience listened to the lad s sobbing tale which the little beast my friend he gasped amid god s good man his tears an he s friend too s sick same as me i i d ad im from a carried im in er apron when e was a week old he me yes e did an e slept in my night of is life an he t a fault in im all an true an now e s gone an an i hate the quality up at the yes i do i hate em an if miss t never come ome my ad been now an we d all a bin patted the boy s rough head gently and thought of his faithful it would have been mere to preach resignation to bob when he the john knew perfectly well that if his own comrade had been thus cruelly slain he also would have hated the quality look here bob he said at last i know just how you feel it s just as bad as bad can be but try and be a man won t you you can t bring the poor little creature back to life again and it s no use your mother with au this grief for what cannot be helped then there s poor she hates the quality her little heart is sore and full of bad feelings au for the sake of you and your dog she s giving her mother no end of trouble up at the crying and suppose you go and see her talk it over together like two good children and try if you can t comfort each other what do you say bob rose from beside the chair where he had flung himself on his knees when had entered his mother s cottage and rubbed his hard into his eyes with a long and dismal i ll try sir he said and then suddenly seizing s hand he kissed it with boyish caught up his cap and ran out stood for a moment there was an uncomfortable in his throat poor lad he said to himself he is suffering as much in his	33
old stained glass i he s always having some bits sent to him and i believe he passes whole hours it together it s his great he won t have a morsel that is not properly he s dreadfully particular but then all old are i smiled and bidding them good morning off she was curiously touched at the notion of old missing her and baby crying for her not one of my society friends would miss me i she said to herself and certainly i know nobody who would cry for me she checked her thoughts except she would miss me she would cry for me but in plain fact terms there is no one else who cares for me only she looked up as she rode and saw that she was passing the five sisters now in all the glorious of summer moved by a sudden impulse she galloped up the and drew rein exactly at the spot where she had given his dismissal and where she had first met john the wind softly through the boughs which bent and swayed before her as though the grand old trees said thanks to you we live birds flew from to and the persistent murmur of many bees working amid the wild which spread itself in purple patches among the moss and grass sounded like the far off hum of a human crowd i did something useful when i saved you you dear old i she said but the worst of it is i ve done nothing worth doing since i she sighed and her pretty brows into a perplexed line as she slowly guided down the again it s all so lonely she murmured i felt just a little dull before and the others came but it s ever much with them than without them i god s good man that afternoon in compliance with a particularly pressing request from mrs she accompanied a party of her guests to driving thither in lord s sir red faced and as usual met them at the door in all the of new grey summer and prominent white waistcoat his clean shaven features shining with recent soap and his white hair glistening like silver he was quite in his element as he handed out the beautiful lady from the car and expressed his admiration for her looks in no terms he felt himself to be almost an actual of hall as he patted lord familiarly on the shoulder and called him my dear boy as he greeted he smiled at her i think i have a friend of yours here to day my dear lady he said with an expressive chuckle who is most anxious to see you and her with gallantry into the hall he brought her face to face with a tall elegant languid looking man who bowed profoundly i believe you know lord the blood sprang to her brows and for a moment she was so startled and angry that she could scarcely breathe a swift glance from under her long lashes showed her the situation how mrs was watching her with ill concealed amusement and how all the rest of the party were expectant of a sensation she saw it all in a moment she recognised that a trap had been laid for her to fall into and the position she rose to it at once how do you do i she said carelessly nodding her head without giving her hand i thought i should meet you this afternoon i did you really i murmured some current of thought yes by the of my something wicked this way comes that sort of sensation you know and she laughed then perceiving a man standing in the background whose sleek form and she instantly recognised she added and how are you mr did you bring lord here or did he bring you of the savage and was taken by surprise and looked a little uncomfortable he one we came together he explained in his affected god s good man voice sir was good enough to invite me to bring any friend and so i see i and lifted her little head with an unconscious gesture pride or disdain or both as she passed with the other guests into the hall the country is so delightful at this time of she moved on lord down his fair moustache to hide a smile and quietly followed her he was a good looking man tall and well built with a rather pale clean cut face and sandy hair brushed very smooth form and respectability were expressed in the very outline of his figure and the fastidious neatness and of his clothes entering the room where miss was solemnly over the tea tray with a touch me not air of propriety he soon made himself the useful and agreeable centre of a group of ladies to whom he carried cake bread and butter and other light with care looking as though his life depended upon the exact performance of these duties once or twice he glanced at and decided that she appeared younger and prettier than when he had seen her in town she was with some of the country people and lord waited for several moments in vain for an to finally securing a cup of coffee he carried it to her no thanks i she said as he approached he suggested nothing thank you i smiling a little he looked at her i wish you would give me a word miss i won t you a dozen if you like she replied indifferently how is aunt i am glad you ask after her i he said she is well but she you very much he paused and added in a lower tone so do she was silent i know	33
you are angry he went on softly you went away from london to avoid me and you are vexed to see me down here but i couldn t resist the temptation of coming told me he had called upon you with sir at s and i got him to bring me down on a visit to hall only to be near you are looking quite i god s good man she raised her eyes and fixed them full on him his own fell i said you were angry and you are he murmured but you have the law in your own hands you need not ask me to your house unless you like i the of conversation in the room was now loud and incessant sir s afternoon were always more or less bewildering and brain where a great many people of various sets in the town of and the county generally came together without knowing each other or wishing to know each other where the wife of the leading doctor in for example scorn and contempt on mrs the wife of the in the same town and where those of high and family like mrs whose mother was a stared and at every one from the same place as creatures beneath her notice thank god said mrs with feeling i do not live in i would not live in if i were paid a fortune to do so my poor mother never permitted me to associate with there are no ladies or gentlemen in i should be expected to shake hands with my butcher if i resided there but i am proud and glad to say that at present i know nobody in the place i never intend to know anybody there several curious glances were turned upon miss as she stood near an open window looking out on the hall italian a of times her fair head turned away from the who bent towards her as it seemed in an attitude of humble appeal and one or two would be wise persons nodded their heads and whispered that s the man she s engaged to oh really and his name lord will be duke of good gracious that woman a mrs as she heard the men must be going mad which latter remark im plied that had she not unfortunately married a she might easily have secured the herself unaware of the gossip going on around her stayed where she was at the window coldly silent her eyes fixed on the glowing flower beds in front of her the mass of and flame colored tht god s good man rich and brown tints of thick clustered the purple and of whose blossoms tumbled one upon the other in a riot of splendid colour and all at once her thoughts strayed to the cool green seclusion of john s garden she remembered the spray of white he had given her and fancied she could almost again its delicious but the time was over now and the roses had it all their own way she had given a rose in exchange for the and here she started almost nervously as lord s voice again fell on her ears you are not me any of your attention he said your mind is engrossed with something or somebody else possibly i have a rival he smiled but there was a quick hard gleam of suspicion in his cold grey eyes gave him a look of supreme disdain you are insolent she said speaking in very low but emphatic tones you always were you presume too much on aunt s encouragement of your attentions to me which you know are unwelcome you are perfectly aware that i left london to escape a scheme by you and her to so compromise me in the view of society that no choice should be left to me save marriage with you now you have followed me here arid li know why you have come to try and find out what i do with myself to spy upon my actions and occupations and take back your report to aunt you are perfectly welcome to enter upon this congenial task you can visit me at my own house you can play all over the place if you are happy in that particular every opportunity shall be given you he bowed thank you and his moustache as was his constant habit he smiled again you are really very cruel to me why can i never win your confidence i will not say your affection may i not know you may she answered coldly it is because there ia nothing in you to trust and nothing to value i have told you this so often that i wonder you want to be told it again and though i give you permission to call on me at my own home just to save you the trouble of telling aunt that her eccentric niece was too peculiar to admit you there i reserve to myself the right at any moment to shut the door against you she moved from him then and seeing the of god s good man park went to speak to them he stood where she had left him surveying the garden in front of him with absolute complacency mr joined him well said the light of the savage and well she is the same as ever conceited little i but she always me that s one consolation he laughed and taking out his cigar case opened it will you have one accepted the favour who is this old fellow he asked any relation of the dead and gone how does he get hall doesn t he grind bones to make his	33
bread or something of that kind explained with civil that sir had certainly once ground bones but that he had retired from such active service while still retaining the largest share in the bone business that he had bought hall as it stood pictures books furniture and all for what was to him a mere trifle and that he was now assuming to himself by lawful purchase the glory of the whole deceased family lord shrugged his shoulders in contempt such will be the fate of castle he said some of bones or maker of beer will purchase it and perhaps point out the picture of the founder of the house as being that of a former pot boy i the old order said with a chill smile and i suppose we should learn to ourselves to it but you with your position and good looks should be able to prevent any such possibility as you suggest miss is not the only woman in the world by no means and strolled into the garden walking beside him but she is the only woman i at present know who if she her aunt s wishes will have a fortune of several millions and just because such a little devil should be mastered and be mastered i have resolved to master her that s all and to your mind sufficient said but if it is a question of the millions chiefly there is always the aunt herself stared then laughed the he the aunt why not and stole a look round at the man who was his chief literary patron the aunt is handsome well preserved not more than forty five at most god s good man and i should say she is a woman who could be easily led through vanity the aunt again murmured my dear what an appalling suggestion mrs as the of i forbid it heaven i then suddenly he laughed aloud by jove i it would be too utterly ridiculous i whatever made you think of such a thing only the prospect you yourself suggested replied that of seeing a or a bone in possession of castle surely even mrs would be to that i with an impatient exclamation suddenly changed the subject but was satisfied that he had sown a seed which might time and circumstances permitting and grow into a weed or flower meantime had made good her escape from the scene of sir s afternoon tea gently moving through the throng with that grace which was her natural she consented to be introduced to the county generally smiling sweetly upon all and talking so kindly to the girls that she threw them into fluttering of delight and caused them to declare afterwards to their mother that miss was the sweetest dearest creature they had ever met she stood with patience while sir by the presence of the various personages in his house and in her face over the little surprise he had prepared for her in the unexpected appearance of lord she listened to his ha ha my dear lady we know a thing or two handsome fellow handsome fellow think of a poor old plain knight when you are a ha ha ha i god bless my soul and without a word in confirmation or denial of his observations she managed to slip gradually out of the drawing room to the hall and from thence to the carriage drive where she found as she thought she would lord looking tenderly into the of his car this peering into that and generally hanging round the vehicle with a lover s enthusiasm would you mind taking me back to st rest now she i have an appointment in the village you can do the journey in no time delighted and got his machine into the god s good man proper state of gasping eagerness to depart anyone coming with you nobody knows i am leaving and mounted lightly into the car you can return and fetch the others afterwards put me down at the church please i in a moment more the car flashed down the drive and out of hall and was soon panting and along the country road at most speed as a rule hated being in a car but on this occasion she was glad of the swift rush through the air had the vehicle torn madly down a precipice she would scarcely have cared so eager was she to get away from the hateful vicinity of lord she was angry too angry with mrs whose hand she recognised in the matter as having so earnestly begged her to go to hall that afternoon she despised sir for himself to the scheme and with all her heart she mr whom she at once saw was s paid tool the furious rate at which lord drove his car was a positive joy to her and as he was much too busy with his gear to speak she gave herself up to the indignation that burned in her soul while she was so to speak carried through space as on a panting why can they not leave me alone she thought passionately how dare they follow me to my own home my own lands i and spy upon me in everything i do it is a positive persecution and more than that it is a wicked design on aunt s part to compromise me with she wants to set people talking down here in the country just as she set them talking in town and to make think i am engaged to him or ought to be engaged to him it is cruel i suppose i shall be driven away from here just as i have been driven from london is there no way in	33
which i can escape from this man whom i hate no place in the world where he cannot find me and follow me the brown hue of roofs through the trees here caused lord to turn round and address her just there he said briefly six minutes exactly good said nodding but go slowly through the village won t you there are so many dear little children always playing about he speed at once and with a weird of his horn guided the car on at quite a respectable pace god s good man you said the church yes please i another minute and she had alighted thanks so much she said smiling up into his eyes will you rush back for the others please and and may i ask you a favour a thousand i he answered thinking what a pretty little woman she was as he spoke well don t even if they want you to do so don t bring lord or mr back to the they are sir s friends and guests they are not mine a faint of surprise passed over the aristocratic s features but he made no observation he merely said all right i m game which brief sentence meant for lord that he was loyal to the death he was not romantic in the style of expressing himself he would not have understood how to swear on a drawn sword but when he said i m game it came to the same thing his car he sped away up the road like a back to hall watched him till he was out of sight then with a sigh of relief she turned and look wistfully at the church its beautiful architecture had the appearance of worn ivory in the mellow radiance of the late afternoon and the figures of the twelve in their delicately carved six on either side of the seemed almost life like as the rays of the warm and brilliant sunshine tempered by a touch of approaching evening struck them as with a from heaven she lifted the latch of the churchyard gate and walking slowly with bent head between the rows of little where under every soft green of grass lay sleeping she en the sacred building it was quite empty there was a scent of and lilies in the air it came from two clusters of blossoms which were set at either side of the gold cross on the altar stepping softly and with reverence went up to the communion rails and looked long and earnestly at the white which in its unknown origin and antiquity was the one mystery of st rest a vague sensation of awe stole upon her and she sank on her knees god s good man if i could pray now she thought what should i pray for and then it seemed that something wild and appealing rose in her heart and for an utterance which her tongue refused to give her bosom heaved her lips trembled and suddenly a rush of tears blinded her eyes oh if i were only loved she murmured under her breath if only could find me worth caring i would endure any suffering any loss to win this one gift love a little smothered sob broke from her lips father mother i she whispered instinctively stretching out her hands i am so lonely so very very lonely i only silence answered her and the dumb perfume of the altar flowers she rose and stood a moment trying to control herself a pretty little pitiful figure in her dainty garden party frock a soft white hat tied on under rounded chin with a knot of pale blue ribbon and a tiny of a lace in her hand with which she dried wet eyes oh dear she sighed it s no use crying i it only shows what a weak little idiot i ami i m lonely of course i can t expect anything else i shall always be lonely and aunt will take care of that the lies they will tell about me will keep off every man but the one mean and fortune hunter to whom lies are second nature and as i won t marry him shall be left to myself i shall be an old maid though that doesn t matter old maids are often the happiest women anyhow i d rather be an old maid than of she her eyes with the little handkerchief again and went slowly out of the church and as she stepped from the shadow of its into the open air she came face to face with john he started back at the sudden sight of her then himself raised his hat looking at her with questioning eyes good afternoon mr i she said affecting a air are you quite well he smiled quite and you you look as if i had been crying i suppose she suggested so i have women often cry they do but but why should they you would say being a man god s good man and forced a laugh and that s a question difficult to answer i are you going into the church not for a service or on any urgent matter replied john i left a book in the which i want to refer to that s all fetch it said i ll wait for you here he glanced at her and saw that her lips trembled and that she was still on the verge of tears he hurried off at once that she wanted a minute or two to recover herself his heart beat foolishly fast and he wondered what had grieved or annoyed her	33
poor little soul i he murmured reflecting on a conversation with which had him the previous day concerning some of the guests at s poor weary sweet little soul while during his brief absence was thinking i won t cry or he ll take me for a worse fool than i am he looks so terribly intellectual so wise and cool and calm and yet i think i think he was rather pleased to see me i she smoothed her face into a smile gave one or two more to her eyelids with her morsel of a and was quite self possessed when he returned with a worn copy of the under his arm is that the book you wanted she asked yes and he showed it to her i admit it had no business to be left in the church she peeped between the covers oh it s all greek she do you read greek it is one of the happiest accomplishments i learned at college he replied i have many a by reading in the original she looked meditative now that s very strange i she murmured i should never have thought that to read in the original greek would ease a how does it do it will you teach me she raised her eyes how beautiful and blue they were he thought more beautiful for the mist of weeping that still lingered about their soft radiance i will teach you greek if you like with pleasure he said smiling a little though his lips trembled but whether it would cure any of yours i could not promise i still if it your she persisted mine are of a different character i think and the god s good man smile in his eyes deepened as he looked down at her wistfully face i am getting old you are still young that makes all the difference my can be soothed by philosophy yours could only be charmed away by he broke off abruptly the hot blood rose to his temples and retreated again leaving him very pale she looked at him earnestly well by what i imagine you know miss there is only one thing that can ease the burden of life for a woman and that is love i she nodded her fair head of course i but that is just what i shall never have it s no use wanting it i had better learn to read greek at once without delay when shall i come for my first lesson she laughed now as she looked up at him they were walking side by side out of the churchyard you are much too busy to learn greek he said laughing with her your london friends claim all your time much to the regret of our little village ah i but they won t be with me very long now she rejoined they u all go after the dinner next week except louis is coming for a day or two and he will perhaps stay on a bit to give lessons to but he s not a society man oh dear no quite the contrary he s a perfect savage i and says the most awful things i poor old i she laughed again and looked happier and brighter than she had done for days you have rather spoilt the villagers went on as he opened the churchyard gate for her to pass out and closed it again behind them both they ve got accustomed to seeing you look in upon them at all hours and of course they miss you little frost especially after you i ll go and see her very very soon said dear little thing when you see her next tell her i m coming won t you i will he rejoined then paused looking at her earnestly your friends must find st rest a very old fashioned world forgotten sort of place he continued and you must equally find it difficult to amuse them well x just a little she admitted the fact is but tell it not in i was happier without them god s good man they me to death all the same they really mean to be very nice they don t care of course for the things i care about trees and flowers and books and music but then i am always such an impossible person are you his eyes were full of gentleness as he put this question i should not have thought that she coloured a little then changed the subject you have seen lady haven t you he bent his head in the affirmative isn t she lovely not to me he replied quietly but then i m no judge she looked at him in surprise she is considered the most beautiful woman in england by whom he by the society who are paid for their compliments laughed oh i don t know anything about that she said i never met a in my life that i know of but is beautiful there is no denying it and margaret is called the youngest woman in the world she looks it answered with great i cannot imagine time making any sort of mark upon her because if you don t mind my saying so she has really nothing for time to write upon his tone was eminently good natured and glancing at his smiling face laughed gaily you are very wicked mr she said in fact you are a and you shouldn t be a and a clergyman both together oh by the way why did you stop reading the service when we all came in late to church that sunday he looked	33
full at her precisely for that reason because you all came in late peered at him with her pretty head on one side like an bird do you think it was polite laughed i was not studying politeness just then he answered i was my own authority oh she paused lady and the others did not like it at all they thought you were trying to make us ashamed of ourselves they were right he said i was i god s good man well you succeeded in a way but i was very angry i he smiled were you really how dreadful i but you got over it yes she said i got over it i suppose you were right and of course we were wrong but aren t you a very arbitrary person his eyes sparkled i believe i am but i never ask anyone to attend church in the parish is free to do as they like about that only if people do come i expect them to be punctual that s all i see and if they re not you make them feel very small and cheap about it people don t like being made small and cheap don t for instance now good bye you are coming to dine next week remember i i remember he rejoined as he raised his hat in farewell and do you think you will learn greek i am sure i will as soon as ever all these people are gone the week after next i shall be quite free again and happy she hesitated not quite perhaps but as happy as i ever can be i she held out her hand he pressed it gently and let her go watching her as she moved along the road holding up her dainty skirt from the dust and walking with the ease and graceful carriage which was to her second nature then he went into his own garden with the and addressing his ever attentive and dog said look here we mustn t think about her she s a bewildering little person with a good deal of the witch in her eyes and smile and it s quite absurd for such staid and creatures as you and i to imagine that we can ever be of the slightest service to her or to dream that she ever gives us a single thought when she has once turned her back upon us but it is a pity she should cry about anything her eyes were not made for tears her life was not created for sorrow it should be all sunshine and roses for her french roses of course i and he smiled with their hearts full of perfume and their full of colour as for me there should only be the grey of her plots of that is dried and put away in a drawer god s good man and more often than not helps to give fragrance to the poor corpse ready for burial i he sighed and opened his greek for once failed to ease his and the seemed singularly and deadly dull xxi evening before joining her guests at the usual eight o clock told of disagreeable surprise which had been contrived for her at sir s tea party by the presence of the whom she sought to avoid margaret must certainly have known he was to be there she said and i think from her look knew also but neither of them gave me a hint and now if i were to say anything they would only laugh and declare that they thought it would be fun there s no getting any help or sympathy out of such people i m sorry but as usual i must stand alone i every one of them was in the plot men and all if the truth were told i burst out indignantly and mrs is at the bottom of the mischief it s a shame i your aunt is a brute i would say so to her face if she were here she s a calculating selfish brute there what are you going to do nothing and looked thoughtfully out of the window at the flaming after glow of the sunset bathing all the landscape in a flood of crimson i shall just go on as usual when i go down to dinner presently i shall not speak of to day s incident at all and margaret will expect me to speak of it and they will be disappointed if they allude to it i shall change the subject and i shall invite and his tame mr to dinner next week as guests of sir that s all opened her big dark eyes you will actually invite of course i will of course i i want here to see and understand how absolutely indifferent i am to him they will never see they will never understand said shaking her of wild hair my dear the colder you are to ce the more the world will talk they will say you are merely acting a god s good man part no woman in her senses they will swear would the attentions of a duke they may say what they like they may report me out of my senses if they choose declared hotly i am not a of the great american that i should sell myself for a title i have suffered quite enough at the hands of this society and i don t intend to suffer any more his methods are intolerable there is not a city on the continent where he has not paid the press to put announcing my engagement to him and he has done the same thing	33

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