n
authority which a lord demanded from him,--the demolition of the
building had been commenced. Before the first Sunday came any use of
the new chapel for divine service was already impossible. On that
day Mr. Puddleham preached a stirring sermon about tabernacles in
general. "It did not matter where the people of the Lord met," he
said, "so long as they did meet to worship the Lord in a proper
spirit of independent resistance to any authority that had not come
to them from revelation. Any hedge-side was a sufficient tabernacle
for a devout Christian. But--," and then, without naming any name, he
described the Church of England as a Upas tree which, by its poison,
destroyed those beautiful flowers which strove to spring up amidst
the rank grass beneath it and to make the air sweet within its
neighbourhood. Something he said, too, of a weak sister tottering to
its base, only to be followed in its ruin by the speedy prostration
of its elder brother. All this was of course told in detail to the
Vicar; but the Vicar refused even to be interested by it. "Of course
he did," said the Vicar. "If a man is to preach, what can he preach
but his own views?"

The tidings to be made in a pleasant spirit were not long waited
for,--or, at any rate, the first instalment of them. On the 2nd of
September there arrived a large hamper full of partridges, addressed
to Mrs. Fenwick in the Earl's own handwriting. "The very first
fruits," said the Vicar, as he went down to inspect the plentiful
provision thus made for the vicarage larder. Well;--it was certainly
better to have partridges from Turnover than accusations of
immorality and infidelity. The Vicar so declared at once, but his
wife would not at first agree with him. "I really should have such
pleasure in packing them up and sending them back," said she.

"Indeed, you shall do nothing of the kind."

"The idea of a basket of birds to atone for such insults and calumny
as that man has heaped on you!"

"The birds will be only a first instalment," said the Vicar,--and
then there were more quips and quirks about that. It was presumed by
Mr. Fenwick that the second instalment would be the first pheasants
shot in October. But the second instalment came before September was
over in the shape of the following note:--

Turnover Park, 20th September, 186--.

The Marquis of Trowbridge and the Ladies Sophie and
Carolina Stowte request that Mr. and Mrs. Fenwick will do
them the