o takes society by storm, it is no drawback, it is sometimes
even a romantic recommendation, to hail from outcasts and profligates.
But for a clergyman of the Church of England! Cornelius, it is fatal! To
succeed in the Church, people must believe in you, first of all, as a
gentleman, secondly as a man of means, thirdly as a scholar, fourthly as
a preacher, fifthly, perhaps, as a Christian,--but always first as a
gentleman, with all their heart and soul and strength. I would have
faced the fact of being a small machinist's son, and have taken my
chance, if he'd been in any sense respectable and decent. The essence of
Christianity is humility, and by the help of God I would have brazened it
out. But this terrible vagabondage and disreputable connection! If he
does not accept my terms and leave the country, it will extinguish us and
kill me. For how can we live, and relinquish our high aim, and bring
down our dear sister Rosa to the level of a gipsy's step-daughter?'

CHAPTER III

There was excitement in the parish of Narrobourne one day. The
congregation had just come out from morning service, and the whole
conversation was of the new curate, Mr. Halborough, who had officiated
for the first time, in the absence of the rector.

Never before had the feeling of the villagers approached a level which
could be called excitement on such a matter as this. The droning which
had been the rule in that quiet old place for a century seemed ended at
last. They repeated the text to each other as a refrain: 'O Lord, be
thou my helper!' Not within living memory till to-day had the subject of
the sermon formed the topic of conversation from the church door to
church-yard gate, to the exclusion of personal remarks on those who had
been present, and on the week's news in general.

The thrilling periods of the preacher hung about their minds all that
day. The parish being steeped in indifferentism, it happened that when
the youths and maidens, middle-aged and old people, who had attended
church that morning, recurred as by a fascination to what Halborough had
said, they did so more or less indirectly, and even with the subterfuge
of a light laugh that was not real, so great was their shyness under the
novelty of their sensations.

What was more curious than that these unconventional villagers should
have been excited by a preacher of a new school after forty years of
familiarity with the old hand who had had charge of