No, indeed; I am very glad to see you. My visitors are not so many, nowadays, that I can afford to turn one from the door because another chooses to come the same day. My dear, you understand Mr. Vincent has had the goodness to take charge of my spiritual affairs, said the mistress of the room, sitting down, in her dark poor dress, beside her beautiful visitor, and laying her thin hands, still marked with traces of the coarse blue colour which rubbed off her work, and of the scars of the needle, upon the table where that work lay. Thank heaven thats a luxury the poorest of us needs not deny herself. I liked your sermon last Sunday, Mr. Vincent. That about the fashion of treating serious things with levity, was meant for me. Oh, I didnt dislike it, thank you! One is pleased to think ones self of so much consequence. There are more ways of keeping up ones amour propre than your way, my lady. Now, dont you mean to go? You see I cannot possibly unburden my mind to Mr. Vincent while you are here.
Did you ever hear anything so rude? said the
the young minister, hesitating, I feared to presume
With an entirely changed aspect his strange companion interrupted him. Lady Western could not think that any man whom she met in my house presumed in offering her a common civility, said Mrs. Hilyard, with the air of a duchess, and an imperious gleam out of her dark eyes. Then she recollected herself, gave her startled visitor a comical look, and dropped into her chair, before which that coarsest of poor needlewomans work was lying. My house! it does look like a place to inspire respect, to be sure, she continued, with a hearty perception of the ludicrous, which Vincent was much too preoccupied to notice. What fools we all are! but, my dear Mr. Vincent, you are too modest. My Lady Western could not frown upon anybody who honoured her with such a rapt observation. Dont fall in love with her, I beg of you. If she were merely a flirt, I shouldnt mind, but out of her very goodness shes dangerous. She cant bear to give pain to anybody, which of course implies that she gives double and treble pain when the time comes. There! Ive warned you; for of course youll meet again.
Small chance of that, said Vincent, who had been compelling himself to remain quiet, and restraining his impulse, now that the vision had departed, to rush away out of the impoverished place. Small chance of that, he repeated, drawing a long breath, as he listened with intent ears to the roll of the carriage which carried Her away; society in Carlingford has no room for a poor Dissenting minister.
All the better for him, said Mrs. Hilyard, regarding him with curious looks, and discerning with female acuteness the haze of excitement and incipient passion which surrounded him. Societys all very well for people who have been brought up in it; but for a young recluse like you, that dont know the world, its murder. Dont look affronted. The reason is, you expect too much twenty times more than anybody ever finds. But you dont attend to my philosophy. Thinking of your sermon, Mr. Vincent? And how is our friend the butterman? I trust life begins to look more cheerful to you under his advice.
Life? said the preoccupied minister, who was gazing at the spot where that lovely apparition had been; I find it change its aspects perpetually. You spoke of Lonsdale just now, did you not? Is it possible that you know that little place? My mother and sister live there.
I am much interested to know that you have a mother and sister, said the poor needlewoman before him, looking up with calm, fine-lady impertinence in his face. But you did not hear me speak of Lonsdale; it was her ladyship who mentioned it. As for me, I interest myself in what is going on close by, Mr. Vincent. I am quite absorbed in the chapel; I want to know how you get on, and all about it. I took that you said on Sunday about levity deeply to heart. I entertain a fond hope that you will see me improve under your ministrations, even though I may never come up to the buttermans standard. Some people have too high an ideal. If you are as much of an optimist as your respected deacon, I fear it will be ages before I can manage to make you approve of me.
Vincents wandering thoughts were recalled a little by this attack. I hope, he said, rousing himself, that you dont think me so inexperienced as not to know that you are laughing at me? But indeed I should be glad to believe that the services at the chapel might sometimes perhaps be some comfort to you, added the young pastor, assuming the dignity of his office. He met his penitents eyes at the moment, and faltered, moon-struck as he was, wondering if she saw through and through him, and knew that he was neither thinking of consolation nor of clerical duties, but only of those lingering echoes which, to any ears but his own, were out of hearing. There was little reason to doubt the acute perceptions of that half-amused, half-malicious glance.
Comfort! she cried; what a very strange suggestion to make! Why, all the old churches in all the old ages have offered comfort. I thought you new people had something better to give us; enlightenment, she said, with a gleam of secret mockery, throwing the word like a stone religious freedom, private judgment. Depend upon it, that is the rôle expected from you by the butterman. Comfort! one has that in Rome.