wn society. Age, wealth, character, and a certain
incisiveness of speech combined to strengthen her position. She was a
small old lady, with plentiful white hair; she had been pretty--save for
a nose too big; in her old age she bore a likeness to Cardinal Newman,
but it would never have done to tell her so--she would as soon have been
compared to the Prince of Darkness himself. For she was a most
pronounced Evangelical, and her feud with Alison was open and
inveterate. She disapproved profoundly of "the parish clergyman"; she
called him by that title, whereas he called himself "the priest in
charge"; for his "assistant priests" she would know no name but
"curates." There had been an Education Question lately; the fight had
waxed abnormally hot over the souls--almost over the bodies--of Catsford
urchins, male and female, themselves somewhat impervious to the bearings
of the controversy. Into deeper differences it is not necessary to go.
The Rector thought her one of the best women he knew, but one of the
most wrong-headed. Put man for woman--and she exactly reciprocated his
opinion; and it is hard to deny, though sad to admit, that her zeal for
Jenny's spiritual awakening was stirred to greater activity by the
knowledge that Alison had put his hand to the alarm. To use a homely
metaphor, they were each exceedingly anxious that the awakened sleeper
should get out on what was, given their point of view, the right side of
the bed.

To Jenny--need I say it?--this situation was rich in possibilities of
staying in bed. In response to appeals she might put one foot out on one
side, then the other foot out on the other; she would think a long while
before she trusted her whole body to the floor either on the right or on
the left. She did not appreciate in the least the fiery zeal which urged
her to one side or the other: but she knew that it was there and allowed
for its results. To her mind she had two friends--while she lay in bed;
a descent on either side might cost her one of them. While she
hesitated, she was precious to both. For the rest, I believe that she
found a positive recreation in this ecclesiastical dispute; to play off
Mrs. Jepps against Alison was child's play compared to the much more
hazardous and difficult game on which she was embarked. Child's
play--and byplay; yet not, perhaps, utterly irrelevant. It would have
been easy to say "A plague on both your houses!" But even Mercutio did
not say that till he was