Eglantine, by the author of 'St. Olave's'.

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Chapter I

11 TY father and I talked of little else -^^■^ but that sermon all the day. It was such a one as had not been heard for many and many a year in Coye Bossington church. And so evidently the man's own too. Every word of it had been forged in the white heat of actual experience ; you could tell that by the life glowing out from look and voice and manner.

" If he goes on preaching in this way/' my father said, ** the world will hear of him soon. If there is one thing we want,

VOL. n. B it is earnestness. I almost think, sometimes, it is better for a man to be earnest in a mistaken cause than half-hearted in a good one — better for himself at least."

But Mr. Elphinston's was not the ''mistaken" cause. He wanted to teach us to be real We had never been taught it before. His sermon was like a bombsheU fired in amongst our peaceful, regular habits of thought, crushing them up, showing how useless they had been to us, how little effect, for the most part, what we believed had wrought upon what we did.

Not that Mr. BsUton—good, exceUent man ! — had lulled us to sleep by crying *' Peace ! peace !" when there was no peace. I am sure he taught us aU he knew— and it was good, wholesome truth too, — ^but we had only seen one side of it. He was always laying down for us an exceUent foundation of doctrine, telling us what we ought to beUeve, and showing us by numerous proofs why we ought to believe it. His discourses upon the Apostles' Creed were to my mind as conclusive and satisfactory as anything could be, and gave me a most comfortable conviction of my Christianity, in being able to agree with him throughout the whole of his argument. But Mr. Elphinston rather damaged that comfortableness by showing us how we might believe all the three Creeds, and yet be very bad Christians — a state of things we had never realised before. Doctrine, according to his belief, was the foundation upon which the beautiful house of life must be built, and the scaffolding which afforded safe foothold to the builder. But it was not the house. We could not subsist upon our doctrines, any more than we could live with any sort of comfort and decency in a house which consisted of nothing but foundation and scaffolding.

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I think we modem Cove Rossington people, poor and rich, coal and iron alike, had never had such a shake administered to us before — at least, not from that crumbling old pulpit. Perhaps we should have taken the burning fiery utterances a little more respectfully if they had been flung down to us by a hoary-headed man who had borne the burden and heat of the day, or if the hand that was now and then thrust forth, with no grace of oratorical gesture, but a sort of striking-home blow, to emphasise them, had borne upon it the decoration of bishops' lawn, or if a good warm comfortable gleam of scarlet had given us the assurance of a doctor's hood. But that a stripling— for really this Mr, Blphinston looked like little else, — ^with nothing but a bit of purple showing itself on the reverse aspect of his surplice, should dare to lecture us so plainly, and pull the covering off our quiet, decent, religious lives, and show us to ourselves as we were, was a little too much. However, I think we took it as most people take unpalatable truth, thinking how exactly it fitted our neighbour's case.

I don't suppose, after the sermon was once begun, many o£ us took much note of the preacher's appearance, though during the reading of the prayers we had criticised him rather narrowly. In -truth he was not a handsome man, but neither could anyone call him plain. If I had seen that face under a sailor's tarpaulin hat, I should have called it a thoroughly honest, good-tempered English face, full of resolution, kindliness, and health. But there were no deep, anxious lines in it ; there was no story, in cramp of brow or compression of lip, of the struggle and conflict and temptation through which I thought a man must have passed to learn what that man told, us. '

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His voice, as soon as he began to read, sent me back to tbe old days. It had Rae Morrison's Northumbrian accent, and warmed my heart towards him directly. I could have Ustened with a certain quiet content to the veriest common-places uttered in the speech which reminded me of all that I had ever known o£ happiness. But it was not the speech only which reminded me. There was just a touch of likeness in the frank, honest expression of the face ; very little, but enough to make me feel at home with him.

" Well, what did you think ?" quoth Miss Pidger, laying violent hands from behind upon my elbow, as soon as we were fairly out of the church. "Did you ever hear anything like that in your life before? Quite a new style of preaching for Cove Rossington, isn't it ?"

" I fancy he wants to stir us up a little," I said. "For my own part, I felt very

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much like an old woman who is having a good warm comfortable cloak, which she bought and paid for herself, pulled off her shoulders. It is uncommonly cold work, just at first."

" Well, Dora, my dear, I must say I felt very much in that way myself, though perhaps I should not have put it in the same words. Pm sure I always thought my cloak, atany rate, was bought and paid for honestly enough, and very warm it's kept me ever since I began to wear it ; and I must confess I felt a little bit put about when that young man began to ask me if I had any right to it."

"Or what was worse still," I said, " showed you that it was full of holes and patches, and not fit to keep the cold away from you. I should think a respectable congregation never felt itself so shabbily dressed before. Fancy going to church in satins and velvets, and finding out, before r the sermon is half through, that you are a beggar in rags. It is humiliating, to say nothing of the cold."

" Well, my dear, we are all alike, and that is one consolation. In fact, I think our rags up here on the North ClifE are not nearly so bad as other people's. He scarcely left enough to those great coal and pit owners to keep them decently covered. Wasn't it splendid to hear him telling them how they ground the faces of the poor to make themselves rich, and how their splendid mansions and richly-furnished tables were the price of iniquity ! It was beautiful ! I never enjoyed anything more in my life."

" Yes ; and when he talked about our sitting over our firesides on a Sunday afternoon, speaking evil of our neighbours, and pulUng their characters to pieces, whilst we should think it a great sin to open a story-book or a newspaper, or perhaps greater still to go into a dissenting chapel.**

" Well, my dear, I think he coloured it a little too strong there, I must say I object very much myself to newspapers and Dissent on a Sunday. A week-night service is all very well, for I do think the minister up at Bethesda is a clever man, in his way, and I don't deny that the Dissenters have done a great deal of good in this place since the pit population came ; but you know, as the clergyman said last Sunday, it is an evil and wicked thing to leave the Church of our fathers."

**Then I am afraid our fathers were very evil and wicked," said I, "or we should never have had a Reformation at all. I don't see why it should be more evil to leave the Church of our fathers than the Church of our great, great, great grandfathers ; and certainly we have most of us done that."

"Ah! my dear, there you get beyond me. I cannot argue on religious subjects.

I only feel when weVe got such a pretty old church, and such good prayers, and everything steady and straightforward, it's a pity to go after anything fresh. But I think Mr, Blphinston will fetch them back again. How he did walk into the rich people, to be sure ! Old Eollekins might have been hearing him when he had that talk with Mrs. XJllathorne that you were telling me about."

"But that purple hood. Ought a man who isn't a bishop, ot an archdeacon, or something of that sort, to talk to us so plainly about our cloaks ?"

'*Yes, I'm sorry about that hood. A Durham man, 1 suppose. I do call it a pity, for I like a man to be from one of the regular universities. I Usten to him with so much more satisfaction, not to say profit, when. I know he has gone through the regular course. I always have the same sort of feeling with a university man that I have with port that has been laid down the proper number of years in a gentleman's cellar. You know you're drinking the right sort of thing."

" Except," I said, " as regards the university man, it is not always the right sort of thing. At least, if it is the right sort of thing, it comes to you in the wrong sort of way."

" Well, not always in the clearest of cut glass, I allow; but still, even then, you know that it has been in a gentleman's cellar, and that makes such a difference* Just the same, you know, as I say of my make-believe sable. I bought it at the best shop in Limeport, and I feel that it's respectable on that account. You mightn't think it, but I have more satisfaction in wearing that make-believe sable, because it was bought at a real good Conservative, old-fashioned shop, than I should have in the richest Russian out of those big* fronted places that the coal and iron people go to. And in the same way I do like my port out of a gentleman's cellar."

^' Well, then, all that I can say is, that a great deal of very poor stuff finds its way into gentlemen's cellars, and never seems to grow any richer for the time it spends there."

*' That may be. But still, as I say, it comes out of the cellar, and so I can pay proper respect to it, as I can't even to a superior article which has been bottled at one of those paltry wholesale houses. I must confess that purple hood is a disappointment to me. Have you seen him to speak to him yet ?"

" Oh, dear no I I did not even know he was to preach this morning, until the old sexton told me, as I was coming into church."

" I could hav^e told you last night, then, for Mr. Collinson called again about those

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Easter dues, and told me ever so mucli. He did not mention Durham, though, for I daresay he knows Tm very particular. He has come from a very rough place in the Midland Counties, worse even than we are now ; for I do say that, so long as any of us North Cliff people remain, there is at least a little leaven of respectability in Cove Rossington. I suppose that accounts for his speaking to us so plainly."

"And where does he live? — at least,, where is he going to live, as the Rectory is occupied?"

" Oh I he doesn't live anywhere just now."

" Poor man ! How very uncomfortable t It is almost worse than not having a proper cloak to wear."

"Well, you know, I mean he is not settled yet. He walks over from Coley- Orton every morning, and goes back in the afternoon, until something is found for him in the shape of lodgings."

" And is lie married ?"

"Oh I no, nothing of the sort, Mr. Collinson says he ha^ neither father nor mother, brother nor sister, wife nor child belonging to him. I daresay Mr. Dewtrie thought, because he had been in the Midland coal places, he would be just the thing for us ; and of course we aborigines, who don't like a man any better for having a touch of the steam-engine about him, must take him as he is."

And Miss Mdger, bidding me good morning, trotted away to her Sunday dinner.

CHAPTER IL

NEXT day, towards evening, I sallied forth to Joe RoUekins' cottage to have a talk with him about the sermon. I had seen the old man's eyes kindle like furnaces beneath his shaggy brows, as those quick earnest sentences were flung at us, and I knew that among all Mr. Elphinston's hearers that morning none would appreciate him better than RoUekins, the coastguardsman. Perhaps, too, his words would fall into no soil where they would quicken to a more abundant harvest.

I was detained on the way by yoimg Jennety who had come to spend a day or two with his aunt, so that it was dusk when I neared Joe's cottage, and the firelight, pouring out through the lattice window of the front kitchen, showed me a cosy enough picture, Mrs. Rollekins was moving to and fro, on household cares intent, Joe, as I thought at first, was sitting with his back to me by the fire, smoking a short pipe ; but as I came nearer, the head of curling dark hair which topped the blue jersey did not belong to Joe at all, but to some stranger, a sailor or fisherman friend, most likely, who had looked in to have a smoke with him. Joe himself was in the shadow of the other side of the fireplace, sitting square and upright in his big chair. To sit very upright was his way of showing respect to anyone who came to see him. When my father went in, he always used to stand for ever so long, and when, after repeated requests, he did at last sit down, he always vy squared himself with his elbows to his sides, instead of the jolly, free-and-easy attitude which he allowed himself, even in my presence.

I went straight up to him, saying, as I generally did in that cottage, what was uppermost in my thoughts,

"Well, Joe, IVe come to talk to you about the sermon. Wasn't it a sermon ? I think, if we never had a box on the ears in our Uves before, we had it yesterday, don't you ?"

To my surprise, Joe, instead of brightening up into eager interest, shifted imeasily on his chair, and his face turned as red as such a leathery, wrinkled old face could turn, Mrs. Eollekins' perturbation, too, had a perceptible effect on the plates which she was arranging on the little table, for they rattled as if they had the palsy, whilst the good woman herself made sundry mysterious movements with her

VOL. n. c thumbs and elbows in the direction of the fisherman.

Turning to him, then, for the first time, I perceived, with feehngs that may be more easily imagined than described, that he was none other than our new curate, Mr. Blphinston.

Now I appeal to anyone who possesses the feelings of an educated English gentlewoman to say whether the sight of one's spiritual pastor and master, jack-booted, blue-jerseyed, bare-necked, with a short pipe in his mouth, and a check shirt collar loosely gathered together with a black silk handkerchief, is not a sight calculated to strike alarm into the mind of the average female parishioner, especially when that parishioner has been a<)customed to see' her former pastors and masters attired in proper black broad cloth, a trifle short in the waist, and proportionately long in the skirt, neat white Anglican collar, and soft felt hat, a little '' advanced/' perhaps, but not of what might be called "extreme views," which were what Mr, Bsliton never entertained on any subject.

It was worse, too, because I had spoken my mind so freely about the sermon. For a few seconds, I don't believe any four people, not convicted of absolute guilt, felt more uncomfortable than we did in Joe BoUekins' cottage. Joe and his wife fumbled and jBdgeted ; Mr. Blphinston fumbled and fidgeted too, twisting about in his huge jack-boots like a hermit crab in a shell too large for it. I stood still, not knowing what to do or say, and I daresay we all heartily wished each other somewhere else.

I was the first to recover my self-possession. Figuratively I sprang to the saddle of this somewhat restive situation, grasped the reins in my hands, struck spurs into the steed, and rushed to the rescue.

c2 literally I shook hands very cordially with Mr. Elphinston, a freedom which, being a middle-aged and respectable parishioner, I had a perfect right to use, and said to him —

*' I beg your pardon, Mr, Elphinston. I only said what I thought, and I thank you very much for preaching us that sermon yesterday morning. But at first I did not know who you were, or I would not have spoken as I did."

Because, of course, if our new clergyman was in the habit, like his great ancestor, Peter, of girding imto him a fisher's coat, he must not be surprised if we of the nineteenth century, whose ideas of apostoKcal succession did not extend to absolute identity of costume, made mistakes just at first.

^'I— I am very sorry," he stammered out at last, and his face grew redder and redder, and he twisted more and more un-

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comfortably in his blue jersey, whioh was a world too wide for his slight build. Then the truth began to dawn upon me.

" Oh ! I understand. They are not your own clothes. Pray do not apologise.'*

" I have had an awkward accident," he said, looking timidly at the reflection of himself in Mrs. Bollekins' best black japanned tea-tray, which was reared up against the opposite wall.

I could have laughed outright, but seeing his evident confusion, I felt it would be cruel to do anything of the sort. Besides, he seemed to have so little conceit of his own to help him through the difficulty. With Ted Ullathome it would have been very difEerent. I was going to beg him not to make any explanations, when Joe came to the rescue.

" Yes, Miss Dora ; it were about as awkward as could be. He was going round by the beach over the rocks towards

Coley-Orton, and the tide was coming in, as it*s played many a one the same trick afore; and it took and got right round him as he was just walking on over the near reef, and there was nothing for it, if he didn't want to be drowned, but jump in and wade for it ; and he comed in dripping like a porpoise, and I had to fetch him my Sunday clothes, and my wife put his things in the back kitchen to dry, and then we set on a bit extra fire here, and I told him there was nothing so good to keep the cold out as a pipe ; and thanks to your father, Miss, I don't need to be ashamed of the l)acca. It's the real sort, what he gives me, every bit of it/'

"I am so sorry for you, Mr. Blphinston," I said, very politely, lest he should think that the pipe and the jack-boots made any difference. ** I hope you will not take cold."

" Oh ! he'll none do that," said Joe cheerily. " He's only to wait a bit, and the things'll be as dry as a bone to-morrow morning. Though how he's to walk back to Ooley-Orton in them there," and he pointed to the blue jersey and the checked shirt, *^ and him the man he is, beats me. It isn't what we've been accustomed to see our parson do."

"Must you really go back to Ooley- Orton to-night ? " I asked, for Mrs. Rollekins, after a visit to the back kitchen, returned, reporting the clerical garments as ** sopping wet " still.

** Yes, I am obliged to return to-night. I have no place here to stay in. I only come to Cove Bossington for a few hours in the day, until I can find proper rooms."

"If you would allow me to tell my father, I am sure we should be very happy to offer you our hospitality for the night."

" Thank you," and again that twist and fidget in the big boots, " but I could not think of going anywhere in— in this condition. I am afraid you are very much shocked abeady."

And he glanced at the short pipe, which he had taken out of his mouth when I came in.

What a shy, awkward, nervous man he seemed, completely floored by a little disaster, which anyone else would have laughed over 1 Was this really the brave young champion who had flung his firebrands of truth at us only the day before, not caring where they fell or whom they burned ; who had told us so fearlessly the truth about ourselves, shaking us out of our quietness, facing us with our stupor, and ignorance, and conventionality, as though armed with the authority of all the bishops in Christendom? And yet, because one of his parishioners had happened to catch him in a dilemma which might have befallen the primate of England, under similar circumstances, he lost all his self-possession, and became as embarrassed as a schoolboy.

I could see he wanted to go and look at his clothes for himself, to find out whether it was possible to make a journey in them that night, but he did not Uke, by walking across the room, to exhibit himself still further to me in his unclerical attire. I thought the kindest thing I could do would be to go away.

" Joe," I said, " do not let Mr. Elphinston run the risk of a bad cold by putting his things on again. Miss Fidger's nephew is staying with her just now. I will go and send him up to you, with what is needed."

And with a general good-bye to them aU, I went away, feeling that they would be much more comfortable without me. I think I never saw a man so pitifully confused by an accident which only ought to have shaken the stiffness out of him, and made him feel more at home with his new people. I could not help laughing heartily to myself as soon as I was safely out upon the beach. The whole thing would show me only its ludicrous side. I got the blue jersey of to-day and the surplice of yesterday, the Durham hood of the pulpit and the jack-boots of the cottage, the fiery words and the short pipe, the fervid, fearless eloquence, and the awkward, twisting embarrassment, so curiously mixed up together that I could scarcely tell at last which place each belonged to. One moment I saw the surplice and the pipe in juxtaposition; then the jack-boots in the reading-desk ; then the bare neck and the check-shirt in the pulpit.

I think never any parishioner was in such a muddle about where to put her curate, and what to do with him ; and yet all the time I was so sure that we had got the right man in the right place at last. I told my story to Miss Pidger, making it appear as serious as possible ; and Mr* Jennet went off directly with a carpet-bag, containing a complete change of dress for the imhappy man. Before very long I found that this little adventure was likely to issue, as many little beginnings do, in events which would change the whole course of my life.

Chapter III

FOR next afternoon, a sweet, still, sunny afternoon, though it was yet but Eastertide, as my father and I were sitting on the pear-tree stump at the top of our garden, idly watching the long waves roll in upon the beach, our meditations were broken by the advent of Miss Fidger, who evidently had something upon her mind.

She was generally a little bit broken and uncertain in her manner of entering upon any subject, but this afternoon she was positively incoherent, to say nothing of a fidgetty embarrassment almost equal to that which I had witnessed on the previous evening.

"You are quite sure— now I do hopa you won't mind my having come," she said, as, after the usual greetings, I made room for her, and offered her a rhubarb leaf by way of simshade, for the afternoon light beat full upon us as we sat there.

*'Mind your having come? Oh dear,, no!" I replied, thinking most likely she referred to the squeezing we aU had to endure for the accommodation of a third person. " So long as you are comfortable, I am sure my fether and I don't mind it at all. We were watching the curious tinting of the water in the little bit of bay that we can see from here. There is such a clear line where the red sand ends, and the patches of olive-brown weed begin; and then, farther of^ you get the deep blue of the sky reflected. I always think this is such a pretty little bit."

"Yes, very indeed," said Miss Fidger, hurriedly. "I always hold up for our

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coast scenery being as pretty as any in this neighbourliood. And, as I said to Gilbert, there was only one thing in the way, and that was that you might feel grieved at being spoken to about it^ and you know I would not grieve either you or Mr. Leslie for anything in the world. But he was so very anxious that I should mention it. He said if I didn^t he would; and men always make such a muddle of things."

And Miss Fidger fumbled about with her rhubarb-leaf, and seemed almost as much out of her element as Mr. Elphinston the night before. Being reminded of him made me ask whether the clothes fitted, and that remark floated Miss Fidger into smooth water directly.

" Almost as well as if they had been made for him, my dear, thank you. I wanted to get him brought up, somehow, but I couldn't manage it. He was fated, though, to have a touch of the sea about him, for the only outside thing my nephew could spare was his pea-jacket, with the great flaps and pockets and buttons — ^not at all the sort of dress, you know, that we are accustomed to see our clergyman in ; but as it was dark when he went back to Coley-Orton, it would not be of so much consequence. Gilbert went with him most part of the way, and first thing this momiBg he came back with the things.'*

"He is no worse for the drenching, I hope?"

*' Not a bit, that I could see. But oh, what a man he is !" — ^and Miss Eidger emphasised this remark by a vigorous shake of the rhubarb-leaf — " what a man he is, my dear ! We haven't had such a man in this parish ever since I can remember; and as himible and imassuming as a child."

"Yes," I replied, "I could see last night that he is unassuming enough — a little too much so, indeed, for his own comfort. But what a thing for him to have to go backwards and forwards between here and Coley-Orton every day, just like a running postman. Can't he find a place at Cove Rossington good enough for him to live in ?"

" My dear, that is just what I had upon my jniai. Your father has gone, hasn't her

And Miss Fidger peeped cautiously round in front of me.

"Yes, he is walking yonder, higher up on the cliff."

" That's right. I could say it so much better just to yourself alone. Well, you know, as I said, he came in this morning with the clothes, and we were having a long talk about it. He would like to go into some quiet family, and be boarded with them, having his own rooms to himself, Gilbert said I couldn't do better than squeeze up a little and take him into my cottage, seeing that I have nobody but myself to look after."

**And a very good suggestion too," I said. "Why didn't you settle it, there and then ?"

" Because I thought of something else. I should consider it a privilege to have such a man under my roof, for Tm sure he's one in a thousand ; but just look at me. In the first place, I should talk him to death, for when I once begin I never know where to stop, which, for a man who has sermons to make, would be rather an awkward state of things ; and besides, Tm no companion for an intellectual man; And then I've only got one spare room, and, now that Gilbert's port is so near, I should like to be able to take him in and make him comfortable when he comes this way. And then Gilbert himself suggested