ng in the middle of the pathway; "for that my wife is ill."

"Nothing catching, I hope?" said Mr. Thumble.

"Her malady is of the spirit rather than of the flesh," said Mr
Crawley. "Shall we go on to the church?"

"Certainly,--by all means. How about the surplice?"

"You will find, I trust, that the churchwarden has everything in
readiness. I have notified to him expressly your coming, with the
purport that it may be so."

"You'll take a part in the service, I suppose?" said Mr. Thumble.

"No part,--no part whatever," said Mr. Crawley, standing still for a
moment as he spoke, and showing plainly by the tone of his voice how
dismayed he was, how indignant he had been made, by so indecent a
proposition. Was he giving up his pulpit to a stranger for any reason
less cogent than one which made it absolutely imperative on him to be
silent in that church which had so long been his own?

"Just as you please," said Mr. Thumble. "Only it's rather hard lines
to have to do it all myself after coming all the way from Barchester
this morning." To this Mr. Crawley condescended to make no reply
whatever.

In the porch of the church, which was the only entrance, Mr. Crawley
introduced Mr. Thumble to the churchwarden, simply by a wave of the
hand, and then passed on with his daughter to a seat which opened
upon the aisle. Jane was going on to that which she had hitherto
always occupied with her mother in the little chancel; but Mr. Crawley
would not allow this. Neither to him nor to any of his family was
there attached any longer the privilege of using the chancel of the
church of Hogglestock.

Mr. Thumble scrambled into the reading-desk some ten minutes after the
proper time, and went through the morning service under, what must
be admitted to be, serious difficulties. There were the eyes of Mr
Crawley fixed upon him throughout the work, and a feeling pervaded
him that everybody there regarded him as an intruder. At first this
was so strong upon him that Mr. Crawley pitied him, and would have
encouraged him had it been possible. But as the work progressed,
and as custom and the sound of his own voice emboldened him, there
came to the man some touches of the arrogance which so generally
accompanies cowardice, and Mr. Crawley's acute ear detected the moment
when it was so. An observer might have seen that the motion of his
hands was altered as they were lifted in prayer. Though he was
praying, even in prayer he could not forget