have said in so many words, "What! marry you, a minister so
poor that a begging fair has to be held to pay his salary?" She
would have not refused him her love and sympathy, but she would have
let him down so gently from the high prospect of matrimony that he
would have suffered no jolt.

Elliot was a good fellow. It was on the girl's account that he
suffered. He suffered, as a matter of course. He wanted Fanny badly,
but he realized himself something of a cad. He discounted his own
suffering; perhaps, as he told himself with sudden suspicion of
self-conceit, he overestimated hers. Still, he was sure that the girl
would suffer more than he wished. He blamed himself immeasurably. He
tried to construct air castles which would not fall, even before the
impact of his own thoughts, in which he could marry this girl and
live with her happily ever after, but the man had too much common
sense. He did not for a moment now consider the possibility of
stepping, without influence, into a fat pastorate. He was sure that
he could count confidently upon nothing better than this.

The next morning he looked about his room wearily, and a plan which
he had often considered grew upon him. He got the keys of the
unoccupied parsonage next door, from Mrs. Black, and went over the
house after breakfast. It was rather a spacious house, old, but in
tolerable preservation. There was a southeast room of one story in
height, obviously an architectural afterthought, which immediately
appealed to him. It was practically empty except for charming
possibilities, but it contained a few essentials, and probably the
former incumbent had used it as a study. There was a wood stove, a
standing desk fixed to the wall, some shelves, an old table, and a
couple of armchairs. Wesley at once resolved to carry out his plan.
He would move his small store of books from his bedroom at Mrs.
Black's, arrange them on the shelves, and set up his study there. He
was reasonably sure of obtaining wood enough for a fire to heat the
room when the weather was cold.

He returned and told Mrs. Black, who agreed with him that the plan
was a good one. "A minister ought to have his study," said she, "and
of course the parsonage is at your disposal. The parish can't rent
it. That room used to be the study, and you will have offers of all
the wood you want to heat it. There's plenty of cut wood that folks
are glad to donate. They've always sent loads of wood to heat the
minister