Part 8 (1/2)

Manvers inquired who this gentleman might be; and Mrs. Flaxman gave him a lightly touched account. A young man of wealth and family, it seemed, but spoilt from his earliest days, and left fatherless at nineteen, with only an adoring but quite ineffectual mother to take account of. Some notorious love affairs at home and abroad; a wild practical joke or two, played on prominent people, and largely advertised in the newspapers; an audacious novel, and a censored play--he had achieved all these things by the age of thirty, and was now almost penniless, and still unmarried.

”Hugh says that the Abbey is falling into ruin--and that the young man has about a hundred a year left out of his fortune. On this he keeps apparently an army of servants and a couple of hunters! The strange thing is--Hugh discovered it when he went to call on the Rector the other day--that this preposterous young man is a first cousin of Mr. Meynell's.

His mother, Lady Meryon, and the Rector's mother were sisters. The Rector, however, seems to have dropped him long ago.”

Mr. Barron still sat silent.

”Is he really too bad to talk about?” cried Mrs. Flaxman, impatiently.

”I think I had rather not discuss him,” said her visitor, with decision; and she, protesting that Philip Meryon was now endowed with all the charms, both of villainy and mystery, let the subject drop.

Mr. Barron returned, as though with relief, to architecture, talked agreeably of the glories of a famous Tudor house on the west side, and an equally famous Queen Anne house on the east side of the Chase.

But the churches of the district, according to him, were on the whole disappointing--inferior to those of other districts within reach.

Here, indeed, he showed himself an expert; and a far too minute discourse on the relative merits of the church architecture of two or three of the midland counties flowed on and on through Mrs. Flaxman's tea-making, while the deaf daughter became entirely speechless; and Manvers--disillusioned--gradually a.s.sumed an aspect of profound melancholy, which merely meant that his wits were wool gathering.

”Well, I thought Upcote Minor church a very pretty church,” said Rose Flaxman at last, with a touch of revolt. ”The old screen is beautiful--and who on earth has done all that carving of the pulpit--and the reredos?”

Mr. Barron's expression changed. He bent toward his hostess, striking one hand sharply and deliberately with the glove which he held in the other.

”You were at church last Sunday?”

”I was.” Mrs. Flaxman's eyes as she turned them upon him had recovered their animation.

”You were present then,” said Mr. Barron with pa.s.sionate energy, ”at a scandalous performance! I feel that I ought to apologize to you and Mr.

Flaxman in the name of our village and parish.”

The speaker's aspect glowed with what was clearly a genuine fire. The slight pomposity of look and manner had disappeared.

Mrs. Flaxman hesitated. Then she said gravely: ”It was certainly very astonis.h.i.+ng. I never saw anything like it. But my husband and I liked Mr.

Meynell. We thought he was absolutely sincere.”

”He may be. But so long as he remains clergyman of this parish it is impossible for him to be honest!”

Mrs. Flaxman slowly poured out another cup of tea for Mr. Manvers, who was standing before her in a drooping att.i.tude, like some long crumpled fly, apparently deaf and blind to what was going on, his hair falling forward over his eyes. At last she said evasively:

”There are a good many people in the parish who seem to agree with him.

Except yourself--and a gaunt woman in black who was pointed out to me--everybody in the church appeared to us to be enjoying what the Rector was doing--to be entering into it heart and soul.”

Mr. Barron flushed.

”We do not deny that he has got a hold upon the people. That makes it all the worse. When I came here three years ago he had not yet done any of these things--publicly; these perfectly monstrous things. Up to last Sunday, indeed, he kept within certain bounds as to the services; though frequent complaints of his teaching had been made to the Bishop, and proceedings even had been begun--it might have been difficult to touch him. But last Sunday!--” He stopped with a little sad gesture of the hand as though the recollection were too painful to pursue. ”I saw, however, within six months of my coming here--he and I were great friends at first--what his teaching was, and whither it was tending. He has taught the people systematic infidelity for years. Now we have the results!”

”He also seems to have looked after their bodies,” said Mrs. Flaxman, in a skirmis.h.i.+ng tone that simply meant she was not to be brought to close quarters. ”I am told that it was he brought the water-supply here; and that he has forced the owners to rebuild some of the worst cottages.”

Mr. Barron looked attentively at his hostess. It was as though he were for the first time really occupied with her--endeavouring to place her, and himself with regard to her. His face stiffened.

”That's all very well--excellent, of course. Only, let me remind you, he was not asked to take vows about the water-supply! But he did promise and vow at his ordination to hold the Faith--to 'banish and drive away strange doctrines'!”

”What are 'strange doctrines' nowadays?” said a mild, falsetto voice in the distance.