garded as a wolf in sheep's clothing a
certain English clergyman who had written to him a letter dated from
the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. On this account Herbert
Fitzgerald took upon himself to say that he regarded him as a bad
clergyman: whereas, most of his Protestant neighbours looked upon
this enthusiasm as his chief excellence.

And this admiration for him induced his friends to overlook what they
must have acknowledged to be defects in his character. Though he
had a good living--at least, what the laity in speaking of clerical
incomes is generally inclined to call a good living, we will say
amounting in value to four hundred pounds a year--he was always in
debt. This was the more inexcusable as he had no children, and had
some small private means.

And nobody knew why he was in debt--in which word nobody he himself
must certainly be included. He had no personal expenses of his own;
his wife, though she was a very queer woman, as Lady Clara had said,
could hardly be called an extravagant woman; there was nothing large
or splendid about the way of living at the glebe; anybody who came
there, both he and she were willing to feed as long as they chose
to stay, and a good many in this way they did feed; but they never
invited guests; and as for giving regular fixed dinner-parties, as
parish rectors do in England, no such idea ever crossed the brain of
either Mr. or Mrs. Townsend.

That they were both charitable all the world admitted; and their
admirers professed that hence arose all their difficulties. But their
charities were of a most indiscreet kind. Money they rarely had to
give, and therefore they would give promises to pay. While their
credit with the butcher and baker was good they would give meat and
bread; and both these functionaries had by this time learned that,
though Mr. Townsend might not be able to pay such bills himself, his
friends would do so, sooner or later, if duly pressed. And therefore
the larder at Drumbarrow Glebe--that was the name of the parish--was
never long empty, and then again it was never long full.

But neither Mr. nor Mrs. Townsend were content to bestow their
charities without some other object than that of relieving material
wants by their alms. Many infidels, Mr. Townsend argued, had been
made believers by the miracle of the loaves and fishes; and therefore
it was permissible for him to make use of the same means for drawing
over proselytes to the true church. If