, I fear."

"I shall have one aired before you come back," said Helen.

"Aired!" returned her husband: "you had better say watered. In five
minutes neither of us will have a dry stitch on. I'll take it off again,
and be content with my blue jersey."

He hurried out into the rain. Happily there was no wind.

Helen waked the servants. Before they appeared she had the fire lighted,
and as many utensils as it would accommodate set upon it with water.
When Wingfold returned, he found her in the midst of her household,
busily preparing every kind of eatable and drinkable they could lay
hands upon.

He had brought his boat to the church yard and moored it between two
headstones: they would have their breakfast first, for there was no
saying when they might get any lunch, and food is work. Besides, there
was little to be gained by rousing people out of their good sleep: there
was no danger yet.

"It is a great comfort," said the curate, as he drank his coffee, "to
see how Drake goes in heart and soul for his tenants. He is pompous--a
little, and something of a fine gentleman, but what is that beside his
great truth! That work of his is the simplest act of Christianity of a
public kind I have ever seen!"

"But is there not a great change on him since he had his money?" said
Helen. "He seems to me so much humbler in his carriage and simpler in
his manners than before."

"It is quite true," replied her husband. "It is mortifying to think," he
went on after a little pause, "how many of our clergy, from mere
beggarly pride, holding their rank superior--as better accredited
servants of the Carpenter of Nazareth, I suppose--would look down on
that man as a hedge-parson. The world they court looked down upon
themselves from a yet greater height once, and may come to do so again.
Perhaps the sooner the better, for then they will know which to choose.
Now they serve Mammon and think they serve God."

"It is not quite so bad as that, surely!" said Helen.

"If it is not worldly pride, what is it? I do not think it is spiritual
pride. Few get on far enough to be much in danger of that worst of all
vices. It must then be church-pride, and that is the worst form of
worldly pride, for it is a carrying into the kingdom of Heaven of the
habits and judgments of the kingdom of Satan. I am wrong! such things
can not be imported into the kingdom of Heaven: they can only be
imported into the Church, which is bad enough. Helen, the churchm