Springhaven | Page 9

they are quite right. I hate the levelling system," the hero of the
Nile replied. "A man should go to church to please his landlord, not to
please the parson. Is the Chaplain to settle how many come to prayers?"
"That is the right way to look at the thing," said the larger- bodied
Admiral; "and I only wish Twemlow could have heard you. I asked him
to dine with us yesterday, as you know, because you would have done
him so much good; but he sent some trumpery excuse, although his
wife was asked to come with him. She stopped him, no doubt; to look
big, I dare say; as if they could dine with a Lord Nelson every day!"
"They can do that every day, when they dine with a man who has done
his duty. But where is my pretty godchild Dolly? Horatia seems too
long for you. What a long name they gave me! It may have done very
well for my granduncle. But, my dear Lingo, look sharp for your Dolly.
She has no mother, nor even a duenna--she has turned her off, she said
yesterday. Your daughter Faith is an angel, but Dolly--"
"My Dolly is a little devil, I suppose! You always found out everything.
What have you found my Dolly at? Perhaps she got it at her baptism."
A word against his pet child was steel upon flint to Admiral Darling.
"I am not concerned with your opinion," Lord Nelson answered, loftily.
"But Horatia Dorothy Darling is my godchild by baptism, and you will
find her down in my will for a thousand pounds, if she behaves well,
and if it should please the Lord to send me some of the prize-money I
deserve."
This was announced in such a manner, with the future testator's useful
eye bearing brightly on his comrade, and his cocked hat lifted as he
spoke of the great Awarder of prizes, that no one able to smile could

help a friendly and simple smile at him. So Admiral Darling forgot his
wrath, which never had long memory, and scorning even to look round
for Dolly, in whom he felt such confidence, took the mighty warrior by
the good arm and led him toward the peaceful bells.
"Hurry; we shall be late," he said. "You remember when we called you
'Hurry,' because of being always foremost? But they know better than
to stop the bells till they see me in the church porch. Twemlow wanted
to upset that, for the parsons want to upset everything. And I said:
'Very well; then I shall square it by locking the gate from your
shrubbery. That will give me five minutes to come down the hill.' For
my grandfather put up that gate, you must know, and of course the key
belongs to me. It saves Twemlow a cable's-length every time, and the
parsons go to church so often now, he would have to make at least
another knot a month. So the bells go on as they used to do. How many
bells do you make it, Mr. Nelson?"
"Eight bells, sir," Lord Nelson replied, saluting like the middy in
charge of the watch. And at this little turn they both laughed, and went
on, with memory of ancient days, to church.

CHAPTER V
OPINION, MALE AND FEMALE
The fine young parsons of the present generation are too fond of asking
us why we come to church, and assigning fifty reasons out of their own
heads, not one of which is to our credit or theirs; whereas their proper
business is to cure the fish they have caught, instead of asking how they
caught them. Mr. Twemlow had sense enough for this, and treated the
largest congregation he had ever preached to as if they were come for
the good of their souls, and should have it, in spite of Lord Nelson. But,
alas! their bodies fared not so well, and scarcely a man got his Sunday
dinner according to his liking. Never a woman would stay by the fire
for the sake of a ten-pound leg of mutton, and the baker put his shutters
up at half past ten against every veal pie and every loin of pork.

Because in the church there would be seen this day (as the servants at
the Hall told every one) the man whom no Englishman could behold
without pride, and no Frenchman with it--the victor of the Nile, and of
Copenhagen, and countless other conflicts. Knowing that he would be
stared at well, he was equal to the occasion, and the people who saw
him were so proud of the sight that they would talk of it now if they
were alive.
But those who were not there would exhibit more confidence than