reverence ill becomes a beneficed clergyman, Mr. Bevis," said Mrs.
Ramshorn--who very consistently regarded any practical reference to our
Lord as irrelevant, thence naturally as irreverent.

"And, by Jove!" added the rector, heedless of her remark, and tumbling
back into an old college-habit, "I fear he is in the right; and if he
is, it will go hard with you and me at the last day, Mrs. Ramshorn."

"Do you mean to say you are going to let that man turn every thing
topsy-turvy, and the congregation out of the church, John Bevis?"

"I never saw such a congregation in it before, Mrs. Ramshorn."

"It's little better than a low-bred conventicle now, and what it will
come to, if things go on like this, God knows."

"That ought to be a comfort," said the rector. "But I hardly know yet
where I am. The fellow has knocked the wind out of me with his
personalities, and I haven't got my breath yet. Have you a bottle of
sherry open?"

Mrs. Ramshorn led the way to the dining-room, where the early Sunday
dinner was already laid, and the decanters stood on the sideboard. The
rector poured himself out a large glass of sherry, and drank it off in
three mouthfuls.

"Such buffoonery! such coarseness! such vulgarity! such indelicacy!"
cried Mrs. Ramshorn, while the parson was still occupied with the
sherry. "Not content with talking about himself in the pulpit, he must
even talk about his wife! What's he or his wife in the house of God?
When his gown is on, a clergyman is neither Mr. This nor Mr. That any
longer, but a priest of the Church of England, as by law established. My
poor Helen! She has thrown herself away upon a charlatan! And what will
become of her money in the hands of a man with such leveling notions, I
dread to think."

"He said something about buying friends with it," said the rector.

"Bribery and corruption must come natural to a fellow who could preach a
sermon like that after marrying money!"

"Why, my good madam, would you have a man turn his back on a girl
because she has a purse in her pocket?"

"But to pretend to despise it! And then, worst of all! I don't know
whether the indelicacy or the profanity was the greater!--when I think
of it now, I can scarcely believe I really heard it!--to offer to show
his books to every inquisitive fool itching to know _my_ niece's
fortune! Well, she shan't see a penny of mine--that I'm determined on."

"You need not be uneasy about the books, Mrs. Ramshorn. You remembe