about his dinner and his room, and asking Markham to
stay and dine with him, Guy at length found himself at home, in the
very room where he had spent every evening of his boyhood, with the same
green leather arm-chair, in the very place where his grandfather used to
sit.

Markham consented to dine with him, and the evening was spent in talking
over the news of Redclyffe. Markham spoke with much bitterness of the
way in which Captain Morville had taken upon him; his looking into the
accounts, though any one was welcome to examine them, was, he thought,
scarcely becoming in so young a man--the heir-at-law, too.

'He can't help doing minutely whatever he undertakes,' said Guy. If you
had him here, you would never have to scold him like me.'

'Heaven forbid!' said Markham, hastily. 'I know the same place would not
hold him and me long.'

'You have told me nothing of our new vicar. How do you get on with him?'

'None the better for that same Captain Morville,' replied Markham,
plunging forthwith into his list of grievances, respecting which he was
waging a petty warfare, in the belief that he was standing up for his
master's rights.

Mr. Bernard, the former clergyman, had been a quiet, old-fashioned man,
very kind-hearted, but not at all active, and things had gone on in
a sleepy, droning, matter-of-fact way, which Markham being used to,
thought exactly what ought to be. Now, Mr. Ashford was an energetic
person, desirous to do his utmost for the parish, and whatever he did
was an offence to Markham, from the daily service, to the objecting to
the men going out fishing on Sunday. He opposed every innovation with
all his might, and Captain Morville's interference, which had borne
Markham down with Mr. Edmonstone's authority, had only made him more
determined not to bate an inch. He growled every time Guy was inclined
to believe Mr. Ashford in the right, and brought out some fresh
complaint. The grand controversy was at present about the school.
There was a dame's school in the cove or fishing part of the parish,
maintained at the expense of the estate, in a small cottage far from the
church, and Mr. and Mrs. Ashford had fixed their eyes on a house in the
village, and so near the church as to be very convenient for a Sunday
School. It only wanted to be floored, and to have a partition taken
down, but to this Markham would not consent, treating it as a monstrous
proposal to take away the school from old Jenny Robinson.