man.

* * * * *

There came a sound of footsteps up the street as Mrs. Partington ironed
a collar of Jimmie's on the dining-room table, and laid down the iron as
a tap fell on the door. The Major took out his pipe and began to fill it
as she went out to see who was knocking.

"Oh! good evening, Mrs. Partington," sounded in a clear, high-bred voice
from the street door. "May I come in for a minute or two? I heard you
had lodgers, and I thought perhaps--"

"Well, sir, we're rather upside-down just now--and--"

"Oh! I won't disturb you more than a minute," came the other voice
again. There were footsteps in the passage, and the next instant, past
the unwilling hostess, there came a young, fresh-colored clergyman,
carrying a silk hat, into the lamplight of the kitchen. Frank stood up
instantly, and the Major went so far as to take down his feet. Then he,
too, stood up.

"Good evening!" said the clergyman. "May I just come in for a minute or
two? I heard you had come, and as it's in my district--May I sit down,
Mrs. Partington?"

Mrs. Partington with sternly knit lips, swept a brown teapot, a
stocking, a comb, a cup and a crumby plate off the single unoccupied
chair, and set it a little forward near the fire. Clergymen were, to her
mind, one of those mysterious dispensations of the world for which there
was no adequate explanation at all--like policemen and men's gamblings
and horse-races. There they were, and there was no more to be said. They
were mildly useful for entertaining the children and taking them to
Southend, and in cases of absolute despair they could be relied upon for
soup-tickets or even half-crowns; but the big mysterious church, with
its gilded screen, its curious dark glass, and its white little
side-chapel, with the Morris hangings, the great clergy-house, the
ladies, the parish magazine and all the rest of it--these were simply
inexplicable. Above all inexplicable was the passion displayed for
district-visiting--that strange impulse that drove four
highly-cultivated young men in black frock-coats and high hats and
ridiculous little collars during five afternoons in the week to knock at
door after door all over the district and conduct well-mannered
conversations with bored but polite mothers of families. It was one of
the phenomena that had to be accepted. She supposed it stood for
something beyond her perceptions.

"I thought I must come in and make your acquain