"Which I never did, sir!" declared Mrs. Spruce emphatically, "No, sir, never! For when the old Squire died, she was jest a slip of fifteen and her uncle, the Squire"s own twin brother, what had married an American heiress with somethin" like a hundred million of money, so I"m told, took her straight away and adopted her like, and the reg"ler pay for keepin" up the Manor and grounds has been sent to us through a Bank, and so far we"ve got nothin" to complain of bein" all strictly honourable both ways, but of Miss Vancourt we never heard a thing. And Mr. Oliver Leach he is the agent of the property, and he ain"t never said a word,--and we think, me and my husband, that he don"t know nothin" of her comin" back, and should we tell him, sir? Or would you reckon that we"d better keep a still tongue in our heads till she do come? For there"s no knowin" why or wherefore she"s comin",--though we did hear her poor uncle died two years ago, and we wondered where she and her aunt with the hundred million was got to--but mebbe she"ll change her mind and not come, after all?"
"I should certainly not count upon that, if I were you, Mrs.
Spruce," said Walden decisively; "Your business is to keep everything in order for the lady"s arrival; but I don"t think,--I really don"t think, you are at all bound to inform Mr. Oliver Leach of the matter. He will no doubt find out for himself. or receive his orders direct from Miss Vancourt." Here he paused. "How old did you say she was when, she went away from home?"
"Fifteen, sir. That was nigh eleven years ago,--just one week after the Squire"s funeral, and a year afore you came here, sir. She"s gettin" on for seven-and-twenty now."
"Quite a woman, then," said Walden lightly; "Old enough to know her own mind at any rate. Do you remember her?"
"Perfectly well, sir,--a little flitterin" creature all eyes and hair, with a saucy way of tossin" her curls about, and a trick of singin" and shoutin" all over the place. She used to climb the pine trees and sit in them and pelt her father with the cones. Oh, yes, sir, she was a terrible child to rule, and it"s Gospel truth there was no ruling her, for the governesses came and went like the seasons, one in, t"other out. Ay, but the Lord knows I"ll never forget the scream she gave when the Squire was brought home from the hunting field stone dead!"
Here John Walden turned his head towards her with an air of more interest than he had yet shown.
"Ah!--How was that?" he enquired.
"He was killed jumpin" a fence;" went on Mrs. Spruce; "A fine, handsome gentleman,--they say he"d been wild in his youth; anyhow he got married in London to a great Court beauty, so I"ve been told.
And after the wedding, they went travelling allover the world for a year and a half, and just when they was expected "ome Mrs. Vancourt died with the birth of the child, and he and the baby and the nurses all came back here and he never stirred away again himself till death took him at full gallop,--which is "ow he always wished to die. But poor Miss Maryllia--" And Mrs. Spruce sighed dolefully-- ""Twas hard on her, seein" him ride off so gay and well and cheery in the early mornin" to be brought home afore noon a corpse! Ay, it was an awsome visitation of the Lord! Often when the wind goes wimblin" through the pines near the house I think I "ear her shriek now,--ay, sir!--it was like the cry of somethin" as was havin" its heart tore out!"
Walden stood very silent, listening. This narrative was new to him, and even Mrs. Spruce"s manner of relating it was not without a certain rough eloquence. The ancient history of the Vancourts he knew as well as he knew the priceless archaeological value of their old Manor-house as a perfect gem of unspoilt Tudor architecture,-- but though he had traced the descent of the family from Robert Priaulx de Vaignecourt of the twelfth century and his brother Osmonde Priaulx de Vaignecourt who had, it was rumoured, founded a monastery in the neighbourhood, and had died during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he had ceased to follow the genealogical tree with much attention or interest when the old Norman name of De Vaignecourt had degenerated into De Vincourt and finally in the times of James I. had settled down into Vancourt. Yet there was a touch of old-world tragedy in Mrs. Spruce"s modern history of the young girl"s shriek when she found herself suddenly fatherless on that fatal hunting morning.
"And now," continued Mrs. Spruce, coaxing one bonnet-string at a time off each portly shoulder with considerable difficulty; "I s"pose I must be goin", Pa.s.son Walden, and thank you kindly for all!
It"s a great weight off my mind to have told you just what"s "appened, an" the changes likely to come off, and I do a.s.sure you I"m of your opinion, Pa.s.son, in letting Oliver Leach shift for himself, for if so be Miss Vancourt has the will of her own she had when she was a gel, I shouldn"t wonder if there was rough times in store for him! But the Lord only knows what may chance to all of us!" and here she heaved another dismal sigh as she tied the refractory bonnet-strings into a bow under her fat chin. "It"s right-down sinful of me to be wishin" rough times to any man, seein"
I"m likely in for them myself, for a person"s bound to be different at nigh seven-and-twenty to what she was at fifteen, and the modern ways of leddies ain"t old ways, the Lord be merciful to us all! And I do confess, Pa.s.son, it"s a bit upsettin" at my time of life to think as how I"ve lived in Abbot"s Manor all these years, and now for all I can tell, me and William may have to shift. And where we"ll go, the Lord only knows!"
"Now don"t antic.i.p.ate misfortune, Mrs. Spruce!" said Walden, beginning to shake off the indescribable feeling of annoyance against which he had been fighting for the past few minutes and resuming his usual quiet air of cheerfulness; "Miss Vancourt is not likely to dismiss you unless you offend her. The great thing is to avoid offence,--and to do even more than your strict duty in making her old home look its best and brightest for her return and--" Here he hesitated for a moment, then went on--"Of course if I can do anything to help you, I will."
"Thank you, sir, I"m sure most kindly," said Mrs. Spruce curtseying two or three times in a voluminous overflow of grat.i.tude. "I shall take the liberty of asking you to step up during the week, to see how things appears to you yourself. And as for servants, there"s no gels old enough at the school for servants, so I"ll be goin" to Riversford with the carrier"s cart to-morrow to see what I can do.
Ah, It"s an awsome mission I"m goin" on; there ain"t no gels to be got of the old kind, as far as I can make out. They all wants to be fine leddies nowadays and marry "Merican millionaires."
"Not quite so bad as that, I think, Mrs. Spruce!" laughed Walden, holding open the door of the study for her to pa.s.s out, as a broad hint that the interview must be considered at an end.--"There are plenty of good, industrious, intelligent girls in England ready and willing to enter domestic service, if we make it worth their while,- -and I"m sure no one can teach YOU anything in that line! Good- morning, Mrs. Spruce!"
"Good-morning, sir,--and you"ll step up to the Manor when convenient some afternoon?"
"Certainly, if you wish it. Whenever convenient to yourself, Mrs.
Spruce."
Mrs. Spruce curtseyed again at the respect for her own importance which was implied in Walden"s last sentence, and slowly sidled out, the "Pa.s.son" watching her with a smile as she trotted down the pa.s.sage from his study to a door which led to the kitchen and bas.e.m.e.nt.
"Now she"ll go and tell all her story again to Hester and the cook,"
he said to himself; "And how she will enjoy herself to be sure!
Bless the woman, what a tongue she has! No wonder her husband is deaf!"
He re-seated himself at his desk, and taking up a bundle of accounts connected with the church and the school, tried to fix his attention on them, but in vain. His mind wandered. He was obliged to own to himself that he was unreasonably irritated at the news that Abbot"s Manor, which had been so long a sort of unoccupied "show" house, was again to be inhabited,--and by one who was its rightful owner too.
Ever since he had bought the living of St. Rest he had been accustomed to take many solitary walks through the lovely woods surrounding the Vancourts" residence, without any fear of being considered a trespa.s.ser,--and he had even strolled through the wide, old-fashioned gardens with as little restraint as though they had belonged to himself, Mrs. Spruce, the housekeeper, being the last person in the world to forbid her minister to enter wherever he would. He had pa.s.sed long hours of delightful research in the old library, and many afternoons of meditation in the picture gallery, where the portrait of the lady in the "vi"let velvet," Mary Elia Adelgisa de Vaignecourt, had often caught his eye and charmed his fancy when the setting sun had illumined its rich colouring and had given life to the face, half-petulant, half-sweet, which pouted forth from the old canvas like a rose with light on its petals. Now all these pleasant rambles were finished. The mistress of Abbot"s Manor would certainly object to a wandering parson in her house and grounds. Probably she was a very imperious, disagreeable young woman,--full of the light scorn, lack of sentiment and cheap atheism common to the "smart" lady of a decadent period, and if it were true that she had been for so many years in the charge of an American aunt with a "hundred millions," the chances were ten to one that she would be an exceedingly unpleasant neighbour.
He gave a short impatient sigh.
"Ah, well! I only hope she will put a stop to the felling of the fine old trees in her domain," he said half aloud,--"If no one else in the village has the pluck to draw her attention to the depredations of Oliver Leach, I will. But, so far as other matters go,--my walks in the Manor woods are ended! Yes, Nebbie!" and he gently patted the head of the faithful animal, who, with inborn sagacity instinctively guessing that his master was somewhat annoyed, was clambering with caressing forepaws against his knee.
"Our rambles by the big elms and silvery birches and under the beautiful tall pines are over, Nebbie! and we shouldn"t be human if we weren"t just a trifle sorry! Sir Morton Pippitt is bad enough as a neighbour, but he"s a good three miles off at Badsworth Hall, thank Heaven!--whereas Abbot"s Manor is but a quarter of an hour"s walk from this gate. We"ve had pleasant times in the dear old- fashioned gardens, Nebbie, you and I, but it"s all over! The mistress of the Manor is coming home,--and I"m positively certain, Nebbie,--yes, old boy!--positively certain that we shall both detest her!"
III
When England"s great Queen, Victoria the Good; was still enjoying her first happy years of wedded life, and society, under her gentle sway, was less ostentatious and much more sincere in its code of ethics than it is nowadays, the village of St. Rest, together with the adjacent post-town of Riversford, enjoyed considerable importance in county chronicles. Very great "county personages" were daily to be seen comporting themselves quite simply among their own tenantry, and the Riversford Hunt Ball annually gathered together a veritable galaxy of "fair women and brave men" who loved their ancestral homes better than all the dazzle and movement of town, and who possessed for the most part that "sweet content" which gives strength to the body and elasticity to the mind. There was then a natural gaiety and spontaneous cheerfulness in English country life that made such a life good for human happiness; and the jolly Squires who with their "dames" kept open house and celebrated Harvest Home and Christmas Festival with all the buoyancy and vigour of a sane and healthful manhood undeteriorated by any sickly taint of morbid pessimism and indifferent inertia, were the beneficent rulers of a merrier rural population than has ever been seen since their day. Squire Vancourt the elder, grandfather of the present heiress of Abbot"s Manor, had been a splendid specimen of "the fine old English gentleman, all of the olden time," and his wife, one of the handsomest, as well as one of the kindest-hearted women that ever lived, had been justly proud of her husband, devoted to her children, and a true friend and benefactress to the neighbourhood.
Her four sons, two of whom were twins, all great strapping lads, built on their vigorous father"s model, were considered the best- looking young men in the county, and by their fond mother were judged as the best-hearted; but, as it often happens, Nature was freakish in their regard, and turned them all out wild colts of a baser breed than might have been expected from their unsullied parentage. The eldest took to hard drinking and was killed at steeple-chasing; the second was drowned while bathing; one of the twins, named Frederick, the younger by a few minutes, after nearly falling into unnameable depths of degradation by gambling with certain "n.o.ble and exalted" personages of renown, saved himself, as it were, by the skin of his teeth, through marriage with a rich American girl whose father was blessed with unlimited, oil-mines. He was thereby enabled to wallow in wealth with an impaired digestion and shattered nervous power, while capricious Fate played him her usual trick in her usual way by denying him any heirs to his married millions. His first-born brother, Robert, wedded for love, and chose as his mate a beautiful girl without a penny, whose grace and charm had dazzled the London world of fashion for about two seasons, and she had died at the age of twenty in giving birth to her first child, the girl whom her father had named Maryllia.
All these chances and changes of life, however, occurring to the leading family of the neighbourhood had left very little mark on St.
Rest, which drowsed under the light shadow of the eastern hills by its clear flowing river, very much as it had always drowsed in the old days, and very much as it would always do even if London and Paris were consumed by unsuspected volcanoes. The memory of the first "old Squire,"--who died peacefully in his bed all alone, his wife having pa.s.sed away two years before him, and his two living twin sons being absent,--was frequently mixed with stories of the other "old Squire" Robert, the elder twin, who was killed in the hunting field,--and indeed it often happened that some of the more ancient and garrulous villagers were not at all sure as to which was which. The Manor had been shut up for ten years,--the Manor "family"
had not been heard of during all that period, and the tenantry"s recollection of their late landlord, as well as of his one daughter, was more vague and confused than authentic. The place had been "managed" and the cottage rents collected by the detested agent Oliver Leach, a fact which did not sweeten such remembrance of the Vancourts as still existed in the minds of the people.
However, nothing in the general aspect and mental att.i.tude of the village had altered very much since the early thirties, except the church. That from a mere ruin, had under John Walden"s inc.u.mbency become a gem of architecture, so unique and perfect as to be the wonder and admiration of all who beheld it, and whereas in the early Victorian reign a few people stopped at Riversford because it was a county town and because there was an inn there where they could put up their horses, so a few people now went to St. Rest, because there was a church there worth looking at. They came by train to Riversford, where the railway line stopped, and then took carriage or cycled the seven miles between that town and St. Rest to see the church; and having seen it, promptly went back again. For one of the great charms of the little village hidden under the hills was that no tourist could stay a night in it, unless he or she took one spare room--there was only one--at the small public-house which sneaked away up round a corner of the street under an archway of ivy, and pushed its old gables through the dark enshrouding leaves with a half-surprised, half-propitiatory air, as though somewhat ashamed of its own existence. With the exception of this one room in this one public-house, there was no accommodation for visitors. Never will the rash cyclist who ventured once to appeal to the s.e.xton"s wife for rooms in her cottage, forget the brusqueness of his reception:
"Rooms!" And Mrs. Frost, setting her arms well akimbo, surveyed the enquirer scornfully through an open doorway, rendered doubly inviting by the wealth of roses clambering round it. "Be off, young man! Where was you a-comin" to? D"ye think a woman wi" fifteen great boys and girls in an" out of the "ouse all day, "as rooms for payin"
guests!" And here Mrs. Frost, snorting at the air in irrepressible disdain, actually snapped her fingers in her would-be lodger"s face.
"Rooms indeed! Go to Brighting!"
Whereupon the abashed wheelman went,--whether to Brighton, as the irate lady suggested, or to a warmer place unmentionable history sayeth not. But St. Rest remained, as its name implied, restful,-- and the barbaric yell of the cheap tripper, together with the equally barbaric scream of the cheap tripper"s "young lady" echoed chiefly through modernised and vulgarised Riversford, where there were tea-rooms and stuffy eating-houses and bad open-air concerts, such as trippers and their "ladies" delight in,--and seldom disturbed the tranquil charm of the tiny mediaeval village dear to a certain few scholars, poets and antiquarians who, through John Walden, had gradually become acquainted with this "priceless bit" as they termed it, of real "old" England and who almost feared to mention its existence even in a whisper, lest it should be "swarmed over" by enquiring Yankees, searching for those everlasting ancestors who all managed so cleverly to cross the sea together in one boat, the Mayflower.
There is something truly pathetic as well as droll in the anxiety of every true American to prove himself or herself an offshoot from some old British root of honour or n.o.bility. It would be cruel to laugh at this instinct, for after all it is only the pa.s.sionate longing of the Prodigal Son who, having eaten of the husks that the swine did eat, experienced such an indigestion at last, that he said "I will arise and go to my father." And it is quite possible that an aspiring Trans-Atlantic millionaire yearning for descent more than dollars, would have managed to find tracks of a Mayflower pedigree in St. Rest, a place of such antiquity as to be able to boast a chivalric "roll of honour" once kept in the private museum at Badsworth Hall before the Badsworth family became extinct, but now, thanks to Walden, rescued from the modern clutch of the Hall"s present proprietor, Sir Morton Pippitt, and carefully preserved in an iron box locked up in the church, along with other doc.u.ments of value belonging to the neighbourhood. On this were inscribed the names of such English gentlemen once resident in the district, who had held certain possessions in France at the accession of Henry II.
in 1154. Besides the "roll of honour" there were other valuable records having to do with the Anglo-French campaigns in the time of King John, and much concerning those persons of St. Rest and Riversford who took part in the Wars of the Barons.
Whatever there was of curious or interesting matter respecting the village and its surroundings had been patiently ferreted out by John Walden, who had purchased the living partly because he knew it to be a veritable mine for antiquarian research, and one likely to afford him inexhaustible occupation and delight. But there were, of course, other reasons for his settling down in so remote a spot far from the busy haunts of men,--reasons which, to his own mind, were perfectly natural and simple, though on account of his innate habit of reticence, and disinclination to explain his motives to others, they were by some supposed to be mysterious. In his youth he had been one of the most brilliant and promising of University scholars, and all those who had a.s.sisted to fit him for his career in the Church, had expected great things of him. Some said he would be a Bishop before he was thirty; others considered that he would probably content himself with being the most intellectual and incisive preacher of his time. But he turned out to be neither one nor the other. A certain Henry Arthur Brent, his fellow student at College and five years his senior, had, with apparent ease, outstripped him in the race for honour, though lacking in all such exceptional slowly off towards the vegetable garden where his "under gardeners" as he called three or four st.u.r.dy village lads employed to dig and hoe, constantly required his supervision.
Meanwhile Walden, leaving his own grounds, entered the churchyard, walking with softly reverent step among the little green mounds of earth, under which kind eyes were closed, and warm hearts lay cold, till, reaching the porched entrance of the church itself, he paused, brought to a halt by the sound of voices which were pitched rather too loud for propriety, considering the sacredness of the surroundings.
"That eastern window is crude--very crude!" said a growlingly robust baritone; "I suppose the reverend gentleman could not secure sufficient subscriptions to meet the expense of suitable stained gla.s.s?"
"Unfortunately Mr. Walden is a very self-opinionated man," replied a smooth and oily tenor, whose particular tone of speech Walden recognised as that of the Reverend "Putty" Leveson, the minister of Badsworth, a small scattered village some five or six miles "on the wrong side of Badsworth Hall," as the locality was called, owing to its removed position from the county town of Riversford. "He would not accept outside advice. Of course these columns and capitals are all wrong,--they are quite incongruous with early Norman walls,--but when ignorance is allowed to have its own way, the effect is always disastrous."
"Always--always,--my dear sir--always!" And the voice or Sir Morton Pippitt, high pitched and resonant, trolled out on the peaceful air; "The fact is, the church could have been much better done, had I been consulted! The whole thing was carried out in the most brazen manner, under my very nose, sir, under my very nose!--without so much as a "by your leave"! Shocking, shocking! I complained to the Bishop, but it was no use, for it seems that he has a perfect infatuation for this man Walden--they were college friends or something of that kind. As for the sarcophagus here, of course it ought in the merest common decency to have been transferred to the Cathedral of the diocese. But you see the present inc.u.mbent bought the place;--the purchase of advowsons is a scandal, in my opinion-- however this man got it all his own way, more"s the pity!--he bought it through some friend or other--and so--"
"So he could do as he liked with it!" said a mild, piping falsetto; "And so far, he has made it beau-ti-ful!--beau-ti-ful!" carved with traceries of natural fruit and foliage, which were scarcely injured by the devastating mark of time. But rough and sacrilegious hands had been at work to spoil and deface the cla.s.sic remains of the time-worn edifice, and some of the lancet windows had been actually hewn out and widened to admit of the insertion of modern timber props which awkwardly supported a hideous galvanised iron roof, on the top of which was erected a kind of tin hen-coop in which a sharp bell clanged with irritating rapidity for Sunday service. Outside, the building was thus rendered grotesquely incongruous,--inside it was almost blasphemous in its rank ugliness. There were several rows of narrow pews made of common painted deal,--there was a brown stone font and a light pine-wood pulpit--a small harmonium stood in one corner, festooned by a faded red woollen curtain, and a general air of the cheap upholsterer and jerry-builder hovered over the whole concern. And the new inc.u.mbent, gazing aghast at the scene, was triumphantly informed that "Sir Morton Pippitt had been generous enough to roof and "restore" the church in this artistic manner out of his own pocket, for the comfort of the villagers," and moreover that he actually condescended to attend Divine service under the galvanised iron roof which he had so liberally erected. Nay, it had been even known that Sir Morton had on one or two occasions himself read the Lessons in the absence of the late rector, who was subject to sore throats and was constantly compelled to call in outside a.s.sistance.
To all this information John Walden said nothing. He was not concerned with Sir Morton Pippitt or any other county magnate in the management of his own affairs. A fortnight after his arrival he quietly announced to his congregation that the church was about to be entirely restored according to its original lines of architecture, and that a temporary building would be erected on his, Walden"s, own land for the accommodation of the people during such time as the restoration should be in progress. This announcement brought about Walden"s first acquaintance with his richest neighbour, Sir Morton Pippitt. That gentleman having been accustomed to have his own way in everything concerning St. Rest, for a considerable time, straightway wrote, expressing his "surprise and indignation" at the mere a.s.sumption that any restoration was required for the church beyond what he, Sir Morton, had effected at his own expense. The number of parishioners was exceedingly small,-- too small to warrant any further expenditure for enlarging a place of worship which mental ability as he possessed, and was now Bishop of the very diocese in which he had his little living. University men said he had "stood aside" in order to allow Brent to press more swiftly forward, but though this was a perfectly natural supposition on the part of those who knew something of Walden"s character, it was not correct. Walden at that time had only one object in life,-- and this was to secure such name and fame, together with such worldly success as might delight and satisfy the only relative he had in the world, his sister, a beautiful and intelligent woman, full of an almost maternal tenderness for him, and a sweet resignation to her own sad lot, which made her the victim of a slow and incurable disease. So long as she lived, her brother threw himself into his work with intensity and ardour; but when she died that impulse withered, as it were, at its very root. The world became empty for him, and he felt that from henceforth he would be utterly companionless. For what he had seen of modern women, modern marriage and modern ways of life, did not tempt him to rashly seek refuge for his heart"s solitude in matrimony. Almost immediately following the loss of his sister, an uncle of whom he had known very little, died suddenly, leaving him a considerably large fortune. As soon as he came into possession of this unexpected wealth, he disappeared at once from the scene of his former labours,--the pretty old house in the University town, with its great cedars sloping to the river and its hallowed memories of the sister he had so dearly loved, was sold by private treaty,--his voice was heard no more in London pulpits, where it had begun to carry weight and influence,--and he managed to obtain the then vacant and obscure living of St. Rest, the purchase of the advowson being effected, so it was said, privately through the good offices of his quondam college friend, Bishop Brent. And at St. Rest he had remained, apparently well contented with the very simple and monotonous round of duty it offered.
When he had first arrived there, he found that the church consisted of some thick stone walls of the early Norman, period, built on a cruciform plan, the stones being all uniformly wrought and close- jointed,--together with a beautiful ruined chancel divided from the main body of the building by ma.s.sive columns, which supported on their capitals the fragments of lofty arches indicative of an architectural transition from the Norman to the Early Pointed English style. There were also the hollow slits of several lancet windows, and one almost perfect pierced circular window to the east, elaborately And here he whirled round on his only daughter, an angular and severely-visaged spinster; "Look at this fool!--this staring ape! All the sauce on the carpet! Wish he had to pay for it!
He"ll take an hour to get a cloth and wipe it up! Why did you engage such a d.a.m.ned a.s.s, eh?"
Miss Tabitha preserved a prudent silence, seeing that the butler, a serious-looking personage with a resigned-to-ill-usage demeanour, was already engaged in a.s.sisting the hapless footman to remove the remains of the spilt condiment, from the offended gaze of his irate master.
"Like his d.a.m.ned impudence!" broke out Sir Morton again, resuming with some reluctance his seat at the breakfast table, and chopping at the fried bacon on his plate till the harder bits flew far and wide,--""Happy to reimburse me!"--the snivelling puppy! Why the devil he was allowed to sneak into this living, I don"t know! The private purchase of advowsons is a scandal--a disgraceful scandal!
Any Tom, d.i.c.k or Harry can get a friend to buy him a benefice in which to make himself a nuisance! Done under the rose,--and called a "presentation"! All humbug and hypocrisy! That"s why we get impudent dogs like this beast Walden settling down in a neighbourhood whether we like it or not!"
Miss Tabitha munched some toast slowly with a delicate regard for her front teeth, which had cost money. There was no one in the room to suggest to Sir Morton that it is a pity some law is not in progress to prevent the purchase of historic houses by vulgar and illiterate persons of no family;--which would be far more a benefit to the land at large than the suppression of privately purchased benefices. For the chances are ten to one that the ordained minister, who, by his own choice secures a Church living for himself, is likely at least to be a well-educated gentleman, interested in the work he has himself elected to do,--whereas the illiterate individual who buys an historic house simply for self- glorification, will probably be no more than a mere petty and pompous tyrant over the district which that particular house dominates.
Badsworth Hall, a fine sixteenth-century pile, had, through the reckless racing and gambling propensities of the last heir, fallen into the hands of the Jews. On the fortunate demise of the young gentleman who had brought it to this untimely end, it was put up for sale with all its contents. And Sir Morton Pippitt,--a rich colonial, whose forebears were entirely undistinguished, but who had made a large fortune by a bone-melting business, which converted the hoofs, horns and (considering that some years ago it had been a mere roofless ruin, and that the people had been compelled to walk or drive to Riversford in order to attend church at all on Sundays) Sir Morton thought was now very comfortable and satisfactory. In fact, Sir Morton concluded, "Mr. Walden would be very ill-advised if he made any attempt to raise money for such a useless purpose as the "entire restoration" of the church of St. Rest, and Mr. Walden might as well be at once made aware that Sir Morton himself would not give a penny towards it." To which somewhat rambling and heated epistle John Walden replied with civil stiffness as follows: