"Then, George, why _do_ you go?"
"Well, I think you know why. I do not like to refuse the invitation; it would only increase Captain Monk"s animosity and widen still further the breach between us. As patron he holds so much in his power. Besides that, my presence at the table does act, I believe, as a mild restraint on some of them, keeping the drinking and the language somewhat within bounds. Yes, I suppose my duty lies in going. But I shall not stay late, Mary," added the parson, bending to look at the suffering child; "and if you see any real necessity for the doctor to be called in to-night, I will go for him."
"Dood-bye, pa-pa," lisped the little four-year-old maiden.
He kissed the little hot face, said adieu to his wife and went out, hoping that the child would recover without the doctor; for the living of Church Leet was but a poor one, though the parsonage house was so handsome. It was a hundred-and-sixty pounds a year, for which sum the t.i.thes had been compounded, and Mr. West had not much money to spare for superfluities--especially as he had to substantially help his mother.
The twilight had deepened almost to night, and the lights in the mansion seemed to smile a cheerful welcome as he approached it. The pillared entrance, ascended to by broad steps, stood in the middle, and a raised terrace of stone ran along before the windows on either side. It was quite true that every year, at the conclusion of these feasts, the Vicar resolved never to attend another; but he was essentially a man of peace, striving ever to lay oil upon troubled waters, after the example left by his Master.
Dinner. The board was full. Captain Monk presided, genial to-day; genial even to the parson. Squire Todhetley faced the Captain at the foot; Mr.
West sat at the Squire"s right hand, between him and Farmer Threpp, a quiet man and supposed to be a very substantial one. All went on pleasantly; but when the elaborate dinner gave place to dessert and wine-drinking, the company became rather noisy.
"I think it"s about time you left us," cried the Squire by-and-by to young Hubert, who sat next him on the other side: and over and over again Mr. Todhetley has repeated to us in later years the very words that pa.s.sed.
"By George, yes!" put in a bluff and hearty fox-hunter, the master of the hounds, bending forward to look at the lad, for he was in a line with him, and breaking short off an anecdote he was regaling the company with. "I forgot you were there, Master Hubert. Quite time you went to bed."
"I daresay!" laughed the boy. "Please let me alone, all of you. I don"t want attention drawn to me."
But the slight commotion had attracted Captain Monk"s notice. He saw his son.
"What"s that?--Hubert! What brings you there now, you young pirate? I ordered you to go out with the cloth."
"I am not doing any harm, papa," said the boy, turning his fair and beautiful face towards his father.
Captain Monk pointed his stern finger at the door; a mandate which Hubert dared not disobey, and he went out.
The company sat on, an interminable period of time it seemed to the Vicar. He glanced stealthily at his watch. Eleven o"clock.
"Thinking of going, Parson?" said Mr. Threpp. "I"ll go with you. My head"s not one of the strongest, and I"ve had about as much as I ought to carry."
They rose quietly, not to disturb the table; intending to steal away, if possible, without being observed. Unluckily, Captain Monk chanced to be looking that way.
"Halloa! who"s turning sneak?--Not you, surely, Parson!--" in a meaningly contemptuous tone. "And _you_, Threpp, of all men! Sit down again, both of you, if you don"t want to quarrel with me. Odds fish! has my dining-room got sharks in it, that you"d run away? Winter, just lock the door, will you; you are close to it, and pa.s.s up the key to me."
Mr. Winter, a jovial old man and the largest tenant on the estate, rose to do the Captain"s behest, and sent up the key.
"n.o.body quits my room," said the host, as he took it, "until we have seen the old year out and the new one in. What else do you come for--eh, gentlemen?"
The revelry went on. The decanters circulated more quickly, the gla.s.ses clinked, the songs became louder, the Captain"s sea stories broader. Mr.
West perforce made the best of the situation, certain words of Holy Writ running through his memory:
"_Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright!_"
Well, more than well, for Captain Monk, that he had not looked upon the red wine that night!
In the midst of all this, the hall clock began to strike twelve. The Captain rose, after filling his gla.s.s to the brim.
"b.u.mpers round, gentlemen. On your legs. Ready? Hooray! Here"s to the shade of the year that"s gone, and may it have buried all our cares with it! And here"s good luck to the one setting in. A happy New Year to you all; and may we never know a moment in it worse than the present?
Three-times-three--and drain your gla.s.ses."
"But we have had the toast too soon!" called out one of the farmers, making the discovery close after the cheers had subsided. "It wants some minutes yet to midnight, Captain."
Captain Monk s.n.a.t.c.hed out his watch--worn in those days in what was called the fob-pocket--its chain and bunch of seals at the end hanging down.
"By Jupiter!" he exclaimed. "Hang that butler of mine! He knew the hall clock was too fast, and I told him to put it back. If his memory serves him no better than this, he may ship himself off to a fresh berth.--Hark! Listen!"
It was the church clock striking twelve. The sound reached the dining-room room very clearly, the wind setting that way. "Another b.u.mper," cried the Captain, and his guests drank it.
"This day twelvemonth I was at a feast in Derbyshire; the bells of a neighbouring church rang in the year with pleasant melody; chimes they were," remarked a guest, who was a partial stranger. "Your church has no bells, I suppose?"
"It has one; an old ting-tang that calls us to service on a Sunday,"
said Mr. Winter.
"I like to hear those midnight chimes, for my part. I like to hear them chime in the new year," went on the stranger.
"Chimes!" cried out Captain Monk, who was getting very considerably elated, "why should we not have chimes? Mr. West, why don"t we have chimes?"
"Our church does not possess any, sir--as this gentleman has just remarked," was Mr. West"s answer.
"Egad, but that parson of ours is going to set us all ablaze with his wit!" jerked out the Captain ironically. "I asked, sir, why we should not get a set of chimes; I did not say we had got them. Is there any just cause or impediment why we should not, Mr. Vicar?"
"Only the expense," replied the Vicar, in a conciliatory tone.
"Oh, bother expense! That"s what you are always wanting to groan over.
Mr. Churchwarden Threpp, we will call a vestry meeting and make a rate."
"The parish could not bear it, Captain Monk," remonstrated the clergyman. "You know what dissatisfaction was caused by the last extra rate put on, and how low an ebb things are at just now."
"When I will a thing, I do it," retorted the Captain, with a meaning word or two. "We"ll send out the rate and we"ll get the chimes."
"It will, I fear, lie in my duty to protest against it," spoke the uneasy parson.
"It may lie in your duty to be a wet blanket, but you won"t protest me out of my will. Gentlemen, we will all meet here again this time twelvemonth, when the chimes shall ring-in the new year for you.---- Here, Dutton, you can unlock the door now," concluded the Captain, handing the key to the other churchwarden. "Our parson is upon thorns to be away from us."
Not the parson only, but several others availed themselves of the opportunity to escape.
II
It perhaps did not surprise the parish to find that its owner and master, Captain Monk, intended to persist in his resolution of embellishing the church-tower with a set of chiming-bells. They knew him too well to hope anything less. Why! two years ago, at the same annual feast, some remarks or other at table put it into his head to declare he would stop up the public path by the Rill; and his obstinate will carried it out, regardless of the inconvenience it caused.
A vestry meeting was called, and the rate (to obtain funds for the bells) was at length pa.s.sed. Two or three voices were feebly lifted in opposition; Mr. West alone had courage to speak out; but the Captain put him down with his strong hand. It may be asked why Captain Monk did not provide the funds himself for this whim. But he would never touch his own pocket for the benefit of the parish if he could help it: and it was thought that his antagonism to the parson was the deterring motive.
To impose the rate was one thing, to collect it quite another. Some of the poorer ratepayers protested with tears in their eyes that they could not pay. Superfluous rates (really not necessary ones) were perpetually being inflicted upon them, they urged, and were bringing them, together with a succession of recent bad seasons, to the verge of ruin. They carried their remonstrances to their Vicar, and he in turn carried them to Captain Monk.
It only widened the breach. The more persistently, though gently, Mr.
West pleaded the cause of his parishioners, asking the Captain to be considerate to them for humanity"s sake, the greater grew the other"s obstinacy in holding to his own will. To be thus opposed roused all the devil within him--it was his own expression; and he grew to hate Mr.
West with an exceeding bitter hatred.