sons, who acted as his
housekeeper, and took charge of his son. Fortunately for Godfrey her
sense of parenthood was more pronounced than that of his father, and
she, who had lost two children of her own, played the part of mother to
him with a warm and loyal heart. From the first she loved him, and he
loved her; it was an affection that continued throughout their lives.

When Godfrey was about nine his father's health broke down. He was
still a curate in his seaport town, for good, as goodness is
understood, and hard-working as he was, no promotion had come his way.
Perhaps this was because the bishop and his other superiors,
recognising his lack of sympathy and his narrowness of outlook, did not
think him a suitable man to put in charge of a parish. At any rate, so
it happened.

Thus arose his appeal to his wealthy and powerful relative, Sir Samuel,
and his final nomination to a country benefice, for in the country the
doctor said that he must live--unless he wished to die. Convinced
though he was of the enormous advantages of Heaven over an earth which
he knew to be extremely sinful, the Rev. Mr. Knight, like the rest of
the world, shrank from the second alternative, which, as he stated in a
letter of thanks to Sir Samuel, however much it might benefit him
personally, would cut short his period of terrestrial usefulness to
others. So he accepted the rectorship of Monk's Acre with gratitude.

In one way there was not much for which to be grateful, seeing that in
those days of depreciated tithes the living was not worth more than
L250 a year and his own resources, which came from his wife's small
fortune, were very limited. It should have been valuable, but the great
tithes were alienated with the landed property of the Abbey by Henry
VIII, and now belonged to the lay rector, Mr. Blake, who showed no
signs of using them to increase the incumbent's stipend.

Still there was a good house with an excellent garden, too good indeed,
with its beautiful and ancient rooms which a former rector of
archaeological knowledge and means had in part restored to their
pristine state, while for the rest his tastes were simple and his needs
few, for, of course, he neither drank wine nor smoked. Therefore, as
has been said, he took the living with thankfulness and determined to
make the best of it on a total income of about L350 a year.

CHAPTER II

ISOBEL KISSES GODFREY

On the whole Monk's Acre suited Mr. Knight fairly well.