'Yes! I have been sorry to hear of all she has had to bear; not

merely the common and universal sorrow arising from death, but

all the annoyance which her father's conduct must have caused

her, and then----' 'Her father's conduct!' said Mr. Bell, in an accent of

surprise. 'You must have heard some wrong statement. He behaved in

the most conscientious manner. He showed more resolute strength

than I should ever have given him credit for formerly.' 'Perhaps I have been wrongly informed. But I have been told, by

his successor in the living--a clever, sensible man, and a

thoroughly active clergyman--that there was no call upon Mr. Hale

to do what he did, relinquish the living, and throw himself and

his family on the tender mercies of private teaching in a

manufacturing town; the bishop had offered him another living, it

is true, but if he had come to entertain certain doubts, he could

have remained where he was, and so had no occasion to resign. But

the truth is, these country clergymen live such isolated

lives--isolated, I mean, from all intercourse with men of equal

cultivation with themselves, by whose minds they might regulate

their own, and discover when they were going either too fast or

too slow--that they are very apt to disturb themselves with

imaginary doubts as to the articles of faith, and throw up

certain opportunities of doing good for very uncertain fancies of

their own.' 'I differ from you. I do not think they are very apt to do as my

poor friend Hale did.' Mr. Bell was inwardly chafing.

'Perhaps I used too general an expression, in saying "very apt."

But certainly, their lives are such as very often to produce

either inordinate self-sufficiency, or a morbid state of

conscience,' replied Mr. Lennox with perfect coolness.

'You don't meet with any self-sufficiency among the lawyers, for

instance?' asked Mr. Bell. 'And seldom, I imagine, any cases of

morbid conscience.' He was becoming more and more vexed, and

forgetting his lately-caught trick of good manners. Mr. Lennox

saw now that he had annoyed his companion; and as he had talked

pretty much for the sake of saying something, and so passing the

time while their road lay together, he was very indifferent as to

the exact side he took upon the question, and quietly came round

by saying: 'To be sure, there is something fine in a man of Mr.

Hale's age leaving his home of twenty years, and giving up all

settled habits, for an idea which was probably erroneous--but

that does not matter--an untangible thought. One cannot help

admiring him, with a mixture of pity in one's admiration,

something like what one feels for Don Quixote. Such a gentleman

as he was too! I shall never forget the refined and simple

hospitality he showed to me that last day at Helstone.' Only half mollified, and yet anxious, in order to lull certain

qualms of his own conscience, to believe that Mr. Hale's conduct

had a tinge of Quixotism in it, Mr. Bell growled out--'Aye! And

you don't know Milton. Such a change from Helstone! It is years

since I have been at Helstone--but I'll answer for it, it is

standing there yet--every stick and every stone as it has done

for the last century, while Milton! I go there every four or five

years--and I was born there--yet I do assure you, I often lose my

way--aye, among the very piles of warehouses that are built upon

my father's orchard. Do we part here? Well, good night, sir; I

suppose we shall meet in Harley Street to-morrow morning.'




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