"Yes, sir." And the man showed me into a room where Lady Tenby sat, teaching her little boy to walk.
She was just the same kind and simple-mannered woman that she had been as Anne Lewis. Putting both her hands into mine, she said how glad she was to see me in London, and held out the child to be kissed. I explained my errand, and my unwillingness to come; saying I could venture to tell her all about it better than I could tell Sir Robert.
She laughed merrily. "He is not any more formidable than I am, Johnny; he is not the least bit so in the world. You shall see whether he is"--opening the door of the next room. "Robert," she called out in glee, "Johnny Ludlow is here, and is saying you are an ogre. He wants to tell you something, and can"t pluck up courage to do it."
Sir Robert Tenby came in, the _Times_ in his hand, and a smile on his face: the same kind, rugged, homely face that I knew well. He shook hands with me, asking if I wanted his interest to be made prime-minister.
And somehow, what with their kindness and their thorough, cordial homeliness, I lost my fears. In two minutes I had plunged into the tale, Sir Robert sitting near me with his elbow on the table, and Anne beside him, her quiet baby on her knee.
"I thought it so great a pity, sir, that you should not hear about Mr.
Lake: how hard he has worked for years, and what a good and self-denying man he is," I concluded at last, after telling what Miss Deveen thought of him, and what Mrs. Topcroft said. "Not, of course, that I could presume to suggest such a thing, sir, as that you should bestow upon him the living--only to let you know there was a man so deserving, if--if it was not given already. It is said in the parish that the living is given."
"Is this Mr. Lake a good preacher?" asked Sir Robert, when I paused.
"They say he is one of the best and most earnest of preachers, sir. I have not heard him; Mr. Selwyn generally preached."
"Does he know of your application to me?"
"Why, no, Sir Robert, of course not! I could not have had the face to tell any one I as much as wished to make it. Except Mr. Brandon. I spoke to him because I wanted him to come instead of me."
Sir Robert smiled. "And he would not come, I suppose?"
"Oh dear, no: he asked me whether I thought we lived in Utopia. He said I might come if I chose--that what would be only laughed at in a silly boy like me, might be deemed impertinence in him."
The interview came to an end. Anne said she hoped I should dine with them while I was in town--and Mr. Brandon also, Sir Robert added; and with that I came out. Came out just as wise as I had gone in; for never a word of hope did Sir Robert give. For all he intimated to the contrary, the living might be already in the hands of the Canon of St.
Paul"s.
Two events happened the next day, Sat.u.r.day. The funeral of the Rector, and the departure of Miss Cattledon for Chelmsford, in Ess.e.x. An aunt of hers who lived there was taken dangerously ill, and sent for her by telegram. Mr. Brandon came up to dine with us in the evening---- But that"s neither here nor there.
I sat in Miss Deveen"s pew at church with herself on the Sunday morning; she wore black silk out of respect to the late Rector. Mr. Lake and the young deacon, who had a luxuriant crop of yellow hair, had put on black gloves. The church was full; all the world and his wife seemed to have come to it; and the parsons" surplices stood on end with starch.
Mr. Lake was in the reading-desk; it caused, I think, some surprise--could that yellow-haired nonent.i.ty of a young dandy be going to preach? He stood at the communion-table, looking interesting, and evidently suffering from a frightful cold: which cold, as we found later, was the reason that Mr. Lake took nearly all the service himself.
What a contrast they were! The simpering, empty-faced young deacon, who was tall and slender as a lamp-post, and had really not much more brains than one; and the thoughtful, earnest, middle-aged priest, with the sad look on his gentle face. Nothing could be more impressive than his reading of the prayers; they were prayed, not read: and his voice was one of those persuasive, musical voices you don"t often hear. If Sir Robert Tenby could but hear this reading! I sighed, as Mr. Lake went through the Litany.
Hardly had the thought crossed my mind, when some commotion in the church caused most of us to turn round: a lady was fainting. But for that, I might never have seen what I did see. In the next pew, right behind ours, sat Sir Robert and Lady Tenby. So surprised was I that I could not for the moment believe my eyes, and simply stared at them.
Anne caught the look, and smiled at me.
Was it a good omen? I took it to be one. If Sir Robert had no thought of Mr. Lake, or if the living was already given to that canon, why should he have come all this way to hear him? I recalled the Sunday, years ago now, when Sir Robert had sat in his own pew at Timberdale, listening attentively to Herbert Tanerton"s reading and preaching, deliberating within his mind--I know I thought so then--whether he should bestow upon him the living of Timberdale, or not; whether Herbert was worthy of it.
Sir Robert did give it to him: and I somehow took it for an earnest that he might give this one to Mr. Lake.
Meanwhile Mr. Lake ascended the pulpit-stairs in his black gown, and began his sermon: supremely unconscious that the patron of the church was just in front of him, looking and listening. No one present knew Sir Robert and Lady Tenby.
You should have heard that sermon: all its earnest eloquence, its sound piety, its practical application, and its quiet, impressive delivery. It was not exactly a funeral sermon; but when he spoke of the late Rector, who had been so unexpectedly taken away, and whose place in this world could know him no more, hardly a dry eye was in the church: and if he himself had not once or twice paused to call up his equanimity, his own eyes would not have been dry, either. I was glad Sir Robert heard it. It was a sermon to be remembered for all time.
Miss Deveen waited in her pew until the people had mostly gone; she did not like being in a crowd. The Tenbys waited also. In the porch Anne put her hand upon my arm, speaking in a whisper.
"That is Miss Deveen, I suppose, Johnny? What a nice face she has! What a fine, handsome woman she is! How good she looks!"
"She is good; very. I wish I might introduce her to you."
"That"s just what I was going to ask you to do, Johnny. My husband would like to speak with her."
I did it outside in the churchyard. After speaking together for a minute or two, Miss Deveen invited them to step into her house, pointing to it that they might see it was close by. Sir Robert walked on by her side, I behind with Anne. An open carriage was pacing in the road, the servants wearing the Tenby livery: people turned to look at it, wondering whose grand carriage it was. As we went slowly onwards Mr. Lake overtook us.
He did not stop, only lifted his hat to Miss Deveen in pa.s.sing: but she arrested him to ask after Mrs. Selwyn.
"Oh, she is very ill, very sad," he answered, in a tone as if the sorrow were his own. "And at present I fear there"s nothing for her but to bear; to bear as she best may: not yet can she open her heart to consolation."
Miss Deveen said no more, and he walked on. It struck me she had only stopped him that Sir Robert might see him face to face. Being a shrewd woman, it could not be but that she argued good from this unexpected visit. And she knew I had been to them.
They would not stay to take lunch; which was on the table when we went in. Anne said she must get home to her baby: not the young shaver I saw; a little girl a month or two old. Sir Robert spared a few minutes to shut himself up in the drawing-room with Miss Deveen; and then the carriage whirled them off.
"I hope he was asking you about Mr. Lake?" I said impulsively.
"That is just what he was asking, Johnny," replied Miss Deveen. "He came here this morning, intending to question me. He is very favourably impressed with William Lake; I can see that: and he said he had never heard a better sermon, rarely one as good."
"I dare say that canon of St. Paul"s is all an invention! Perhaps Mrs.
Jonas went to sleep and dreamt it."
"It is certainly not fact," laughed Miss Deveen. "Sir Robert tells me he does not as much as know any one of the canons by sight."
"He did not tell you he should give it to Mr. Lake?"
"No, Johnny: neither did he give me any grounds for supposing that he would. He is a very cautious man; I can see that; conscientiously wishing to do right, and act for the best. We must say nothing of this abroad, remember."
The Reverend William Lake sat down to his breakfast on Monday morning, as the clock was striking half-past nine. He had been called out to baptize a sick baby and pray by its dying mother. Pouring himself out a cup of tea, b.u.t.tering his first slice of dry toast, and cracking his egg, for that"s what his breakfast consisted of, he took up a letter lying on the table, which had come by the morning post. Opening it presently, he found it to contain a request from Sir Robert Tenby that he would call upon him that morning at eleven o"clock, in Upper Brook Street.
"Sir Robert Tenby cannot know of our daily service," thought the clergyman, after reading the note twice over, and wondering what he was wanted for; he having no knowledge of the tide of affairs: no more notion that Sir Robert had been at the church the previous day than that the man in the moon was there. "I must ask Chisholm to take the service this morning."
Accordingly, his breakfast over, and a sprucer coat put on, he went to the deacon"s lodgings--handsome rooms in a good house. That young divine was just beginning breakfast, the table being laid with toasted ham and poached eggs, and potted meats, and hot, b.u.t.tered m.u.f.fins, and all kinds of nice things, presenting a contrast to the frugal one Mr. Lake had just got up from.
"Took an extra snooze in bed to nurse myself," cried the young man, in half-apology for the lateness of the meal, as he poured out a frothing cup of chocolate. "My cold?--oh, it"s better."
"I am glad of that," said Sir. Lake. "I want you to take the service this morning."
"What, do it all!"
"If you will be so good. I have a note here from Sir Robert Tenby, asking me to call upon him at eleven o"clock. I can"t think what he wants."
"Sir Robert Tenby? That"s the patron! Oh, I dare say it"s only to talk about the Selwyns; or to tell you to take the duty until some one"s appointed to the living."
"Ay," replied Mr. Lake. And he had no other thought, no idea of self-benefit, when he started off to walk to Upper Brook Street.
An hour later, seated in Sir Robert"s library, enlightenment came to him. After talking with him for some time, questioning him of his Church views and principles, hearing somewhat of his past career and of what he had formerly done at Cambridge, to all of which he gave answers that were especially pleasing to the patron"s ear, Sir Robert imparted to him the astounding fact that he--_he!_--was to be the new Rector.