He did not quite know what was happening to him but everything seemed different.  A hundred thoughts had passed through his mind during the last half hour.  It had occurred to him that he ought to have asked Guiseley to come to the clergy-house and lodge there for a bit while things were talked over; that he ought, tactfully, to have offered to lend him money, to provide him with a new suit, to make suggestions as to proper employment instead of at the jam factory—­all those proper, philanthropic and prudent suggestions that a really sensible clergyman would have made.  And yet, somehow, not only had he not made them, but it was obvious and evident when he regarded them that they could not possibly be made.  Guiseley (of Drew’s) did not require them, he was on another line altogether....  And what was that line?

Mr. Parham-Carter leaned on the gate a full five minutes considering all this.  But he arrived at no conclusion.

CHAPTER II

(I)

The Rector of Merefield was returning from a short pastoral visitation towards the close of an afternoon at the beginning of November.  His method and aims were very characteristic of himself, since he was one of that numerous class of persons who, interiorly possessing their full share of proper pride, wear exteriorly an appearance of extreme and almost timid humility.  The aims of his visiting were, though he was quite unaware of the fact, directed towards encouraging people to hold fast to their proper position in life (for this, after all, is only another name for one’s duty towards one’s neighbor), and his method was to engage in general conversation on local topics.  There emerged, in this way, information as to the patient’s habits and actions; it would thus transpire, for example, whether the patient had been to church or not, whether there were any quarrels, and, if so, who were the combatants and for what cause.

He had been fairly satisfied to-day; he had met with good excuses for the absence of two children from day-school, and of a young man from choir-practice; he had read a little Scripture to an old man, and had been edified by his comments upon it.  It was not particularly supernatural, but, after all, the natural has its place, too, in life, and he had undoubtedly fulfilled to-day some of the duties for whose sake he occupied the position of Rector of Merefield, in a completely inoffensive manner.  The things he hated most in the world were disturbances of any kind, abruptness and the unexpected, and he had a strong reputation in the village for being a man of peace.