Sword and Gown | Page 9

addition to his anxiety about the conscientious
discharge of his duties, has to cultivate the friendship of a vast number
of unrighteous Mammons, if he would be allowed to perform his
functions at all. Our countrymen are popularly supposed to take out a
special license for liberty of thought and action as soon as they cross
the Channel; and the pastor's pulpit-cushion can hardly be stuffed with
roses when every other member of his congregation--embracing
devotees of about a dozen different shades of High, Low, and Broad
Church--thinks it his or her daily duty to decide, if the
formula--Quamdiu se bene gesserit--has been duly complied with.
Perhaps foreign air and warmer climates develop, like a hot-bed, our
innate instinct of destructiveness. Look at portly respectable fathers of
families--householders who, at home, have accepted their spiritual
position without a murmur for a quarter of a century, roused to revolt
by no vexed question of copes, candles, or church-rates--even these can
not escape contagion. When once the game is afoot, they will open on
the scent with the perseverance of the steadiest "line-hunter," and join
in the "worry" as savagely as the youngest hound. I remember seeing a
similar case in Scotland, where a minister was preaching before "the
Men" who were appointed to judge of his qualifications. Right in front
of him, on a low bench, sat the awful Three, silent, stolid, and stern.
His best rounded periods, his neatest imagery, his aptest quotations,
brought no light into their vacant gray eyes: perhaps they were looking
beyond all these, straight at the doctrine. The breeze blew freshly from
the German Ocean, over the purple hills; but it brought no coolness to
that miserable Boanerges. How he did perspire! I could not wonder at it;
and though he preached for ninety-five minutes, and wearied me even
to death, I bore him no enmity, but pitied him from my soul.
Mr. Fullarton, however, had steered through the reefs and quicksands
with better skill or luck than his fellows, and, judging from the
ruddiness of his broad, beardless face, and the amplitude of his black
waistcoat, the cares of office had not hitherto affected his health

materially. He was a well-meaning, conscientious man, ready to work
hard for his flock and his family; indeed, barring a certain frail leaning
toward gourmandise, of which a full pendulous lip told tales, and an
occasional infirmity of temper, he had as few outward failings as could
be desired. For one of no extreme views, he could count an
extraordinary number of adherents. Without being particularly
agreeable or instructive, he possessed a rather imposing readiness and
rotundity of speech, and had a knack of turning his arm-chair into a
pulpit somewhat oftener than was quite in good taste. However, I
suppose the best of us will talk "shop" when we see a fair opening. He
had a large wife and several small children. No one admired him more
devotedly than this truly excellent woman. As far as sharing in her
husband's successes went, or partaking in any other advantages of
society, she might as well have been the squaw of an Iowa brave; for
her time was more than taken up in tending her offspring, and in
providing for her lord the savory meats in which he delighted; but she
looked the picture of contentment, and so nobody thought it necessary
to pity her.
From the first moment of their meeting, the chaplain had entertained a
nervous dislike, approaching to a presentiment, toward Royston Keene.
He regarded him as a brand likely to inflame others, but itself by no
means to be plucked from the burning. The latter saw his gesture as he
passed, and smiled--not pleasantly. "Remark the shepherd, M. le
Vicomte," he said; "he sees the wolves prowling, and trembles for his
lambs."
"One wolf, at least, is toothless," answered Châteaumesnil. "What have
we to do with lambs, except en suprême? But the sun is down; I must
go home, or these cursed pains will avenge themselves. Till this
evening."
"I will not fail; but you will permit me to accompany you so far," said
Keene, bending over the invalid with the grand courteous air that
became him well; and he walked by the other's side till they reached his
door, talking over the varying fortunes of last night's play.

CHAPTER IV.
You have found out already that you are only looking at a chaplet of
cameos, with just enough of story to string them together. Under these
circumstances, the right thing of course to do is to work out each
character by the rules of metaphysical mathematics, and then to reverse
the process and "prove" the result. But I never tried to extract the
square root out of any thing without failing miserably, and one can only