, she threw herself into the
religious polemics of the time, and not only came to be on very ill
terms with her own parish clergyman, but fell foul of the bishop of the
diocese, who seemed to her to treat with insufficient consideration
certain letters she addressed to him. Then it was that, happening to
hear a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Bride in an unfashionable church at
Hollingford, she found in it a forcible expression of her own views,
and straight way selected Mr. Bride from all the Hollingford clergy as
the sole representative of Anglicanism. She spoke of him as "the coming
man," prophesied for him a brilliant career, and began to exert herself
on his behalf. Doubtless she would have obtained substantial promotion
for the curate of St. John's, had not her own vehemence and Mr. Bride's
difficult character brought about a painful misunderstanding between
them. The curate was not what is known as a gentleman by birth; he had
the misfortune to count among his near kinsfolk not only very poor, but
decidedly ungenteel, persons. His only sister had married an uneducated
man, who, being converted to some nondescript religion, went preaching
about the country, and unluckily, in the course of his apostolate,
appeared at Hollingford. Here he had some success; crowds attended his
open-air sermons. It soon became known that the preacher's wife, who
was always at his side, was a sister of Mr. Bride of St. John's, and
great scandal arose in orthodox circles. Mr. Bride took quite another
view of the matter, and declared that, in doing so, he behaved simply
as a Christian. The debate exasperated Lady Ogram's violent temper, and
fortified Mr. Bride in a resentful obstinacy. After their parting, in
high dudgeon, letters were exchanged, which merely embittered the
quarrel. It was reported that the Lady of Rivenoak had publicly styled
the curate of St. John's "a low-born and ill-bred parson;" whereto Mr.
Bride was alleged to have made retort that as regards birth, he
suspected that he had somewhat the advantage of Lady Ogram, and, as for
his breeding, it at all events forebade him to bandy insults. Not long
after this, St. John's had another curate. A sequel of the story was
the ultimate settling at Hollingford of Mr. Bride's sister and her
husband, where, to this day the woman, for some years a widow,
supported herself by means of a little bakery.

"I hadn't seen Lady Ogram for a long time," Constance pursued, "and
when I got my place o