His eyes twinkled, as glancing round the company, he saw that his words had made an impression and awakened a responsive smile--"Good- night t'ye!" And touching Bennett on the shoulder in passing, he added: "You come an' see me, my lad, when you feels like goin' a bit in the scinetific line! Mebbe I can tell ye a few pints wot the learned gentlemen in London don't know. Anyway, a little church- goin' under Passon Walden won't do you no 'arm, nor your lady neither, if she's what I takes her for, which is believin' her to be all good as wimmin goes. An' when Passon warms to his work an' tells ye plain as 'ow everything's ordained for the best, an' as 'ow every flower's a miracle of the Lord, an' every bird's song a bit o' the Lord's own special music, it 'eartens ye up an' makes ye more 'opeful o' your own poor mis'able self--it do reely now!"
With another friendly pat on the groom's shoulder, and a cheery smile, Bainton passed out, and left the rest of the company in the 'Mother Huff' tap-room solemnly gazing upon one another.
"He speaks straight, he do," said Farmer Thorpe, "An' he ain't no canter,--he's just plain Tummas, an' wot he sez he means."
"Here's to his 'elth,--a game old boy!" said Bennett good- humouredly, ordering another glass of ale; "It's quite a treat to meet a man like him, and I shan't be above owning that he's got a deal of right on his side. But what he says ain't Orthodox Church teaching."
"Mebbe not," said Dan Kidley, "but it's Passon Walden's teachin', an' if you ain't 'eard Passon yet, Mister Bennett, I'd advise ye to go next Sunday. An' if your lady 'ud make up her mind to go too just for once---"
Bennett gave an expressive gesture.
"She won't go--you may depend on that!" he said; "She's had too much of parsons as it is. Why Mrs. Fred--that's her American aunt--was regular pestered with 'em coming beggin' of her for their churches and their windows and their schools and their infants and their poor, lame, blind, sick of all sorts, as well as for theirselves. D'rectly they knew she was a millionaire lady' they 'adn't got but one thought--how to get some of the millions out of her. There was three secretaries kept when we was in London, and they'd hardly time for bite nor sup with all the work they 'ad, refusin' scores of churches and religious folks all together. Miss Maryllia's got a complete scare o' parsons. Whenever she see a shovel-hat coming she just flew! When she was in Paris it was the Catholics as wanted money--nuns, sisters of the poor, priests as 'ad been turned out by the Government,--and what not,--and out in America it was the Christian Scientists all the time with such a lot of tickets for lectures and fal-lals as you never saw,--then came the Spiritooalists with their seeances; and altogether the Vancourt family got to look on all sorts of religions merely as so many kinds of beggin' boxes which if you dropped money into, you went straight to the Holy-holies, and if you didn't you dropped down into the great big D's. No!--I don't think anyone need expect to see my lady at church--it's the last place she'd ever think of going to!"