He bore it meekly enough, so far as he was personally concerned; but he grieved about it in connection with his deep religious feelings and his Church.  The Church was not in the front of all, as it should be.  It was hard after all his labour; the rebuffs, the bitter remarks, the sneers of those who had divergent views, and, perhaps worse than all, the cold indifference and apathy of those who wished things to remain in the old state, ignoring the fact that the law would not suffer it.  There were many other things besides the school, but they all went the same way.  The modern institution was introduced, championed by the Church, worked for by the Church, but when at last it was successful, somehow or other it seemed to have severed itself from the Church altogether.  The vicar walked about the village, and felt that, though nominally in it, he was really out of it.

His wife saw it too, still more clearly than he did.  She saw that he had none of the gift of getting money out of people.  Some men seem only to have to come in contact with others to at once receive the fruits of their dormant benevolent feelings.  The rich man writes his cheque for 100_l_., the middle-class well-to-do sends his bank notes for 20_l_., the comfortable middle-class man his sovereigns.  A testimonial is got up, an address engrossed on vellum, speeches are made, and a purse handed over containing a draft for so many hundreds, ’in recognition, not in reward, of your long continued and successful ministrations.’  The art of causing the purse-strings to open is an art that is not so well understood, perhaps, among the orthodox as by the unorthodox.  The Rev. F——­ either could not, or would not, or did not know how to ask, and he did not receive.

Just at present his finances were especially low.  The tenants who farmed the glebe land threatened to quit unless their rents were materially reduced, and unless a considerable sum was expended upon improvements.  To some very rich men the reduction of rents has made a sensible difference; to the Rev. F——­ it meant serious privations.  But he had no choice; he had to be satisfied with that or nothing.  Then the vicarage house, though substantial and pleasant to look at, was not in a good state within.  The rain came through in more places than one, and the ancient woodwork of the roof was rotten.  He had already done considerable repairing, and knew that he must soon do more.  The nominal income of the living was but moderate; but when the reductions were all made, nothing but a cheese-paring seemed left.  From this his subscriptions to certain ecclesiastical institutions had to be deducted.

Lastly, he had received a hint that a curate ought to be kept now that his increasing age rendered him less active than before.  There was less hope now than ever of anything being done for him in the parish.  The landowners complained of rent reductions, of farms idle on their hands, and of increasing expenses.  The farmers grumbled about the inclement seasons, their continual losses, and the falling markets.  It was not a time when the churlish are almost generous, having such overflowing pockets.  There was no testimonial, no address on vellum, no purse with banker’s draft for the enfeebled servant of the Church slumbering in the cane chair in the verandah.