being done at St. Agnes'
had been so much exaggerated.

Mark wrote an account of this incident, which had given him intense
pleasure, to Mr. Ogilvie. Perhaps the Rector was afraid that Mark in his
ambition to avoid "churchiness" was inclining toward the opposite
extreme; or perhaps, charitable and saintly man though he was, he felt a
pang of jealousy at Mark's unbounded admiration of his new friend; or
perhaps it was merely that the east wind was blowing more sharply than
usual that morning over the wold into the Rectory garden. Whatever the
cause, his answering letter made Mark feel that the Rector did not
appreciate Father Rowley as thoroughly as he ought.

The Rectory,

Wych-on-the-Wold.

Oxon.

Dec. 1.

My dear Mark,

I was glad to get your long and amusing letter of last week. I am
delighted to think that as the months go by you are finding work
among the poor more and more congenial. I would not for the world
suggest your coming back here for Christmas after what you tell me
of the amount of extra work it will entail for everybody in the
Mission House; at the same time it would be useless to pretend that
we shan't all be disappointed not to see you until the New Year.

On reading through your last letter again I feel just a little
worried lest, in the pleasure you derive from Father Rowley's
treatment of what was no doubt a very irritating young man, you may
be inclined to go to the opposite extreme and be too ready to laugh
at real piety when it is not accompanied by geniality and good
fellowship, or by an obvious zeal for good works. I know you will
acquit me of any desire to defend extreme "churchiness," and I have
no doubt you will remember one or two occasions in the past when I
was rather afraid that you were tending that way yourself. I am not
in the least criticizing Father Rowley's method of dealing with it,
but I am a trifle uneasy at the inordinate delight it seems to have
afforded you. Of course, it is intolerable for any young man
serving a priest at Mass to watch his fingers all the time, but I
don't think you have any right to assume because on this occasion
the young man showed himself so sensitive to mere externals that he
is always aware only of externals. Unfortunately a very great deal
of true and fervid piety exists under this apparent pass