The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-03-15
A RIGn.CHURCH STORY.

that arose Wuen the HeV. refer Orrlcle
set up confessional in his church of st.
Benedict. There was q correspondence
about it in the papers; the bishop inter
fered, and threatened with legal proceed
ings. Mr. Orricle dehed his bishop, but
a mob having broken into the church one
Sunday, and having smashed the confes-
sional, Mr.. Orrlcle gave in. He fitted up
an oratory in his house, set up carved
oak confessional in it (which had been
presented to him by public subscriptions
among his friends), and announced that
he would near confessions there. No act
of Parliament could prevent his doing
that. The only person who would have
had any right to object was Mrs. Orricle,
but at that time there was no Mrs.
Orricle.
Mr.. Orricle did not marry Miss Igna-
tia Stark until some weeks after he had
reduced his diocesaus to silence; and it
must be owned that if that his lady par
ishioners had been aware of his matri-
monial intentions, the subscriptions to-
ward that new confessional in carved
oak would not have been so abundant as
they were. Mr.. Orioles marriage was
not popular proceeding; it was re-
garded in some quarters as being almost
q breach of faith. For had not Mr.. Or
ricle often talked through his nose about
the single life being the blessed life?
We are not laughing at him because he
talked through his nose, for this was an
affinity of nature but beyond doubt
his utterances acquired an additional de-
gree of solemnity by passing through his
nostrlls. even as mere wind becomes
&,n f,,l NV wi, ~
pipe. The young ladies who poured the
stories of their souls torments into the
celibate ears of Mr.. Orricle were taken
considered his theories about single
blessedness; and each said to herself in
alarm: Suppose ne should tell my
secrets to that horrid girl, Nassie?"
For about a year after his marriage,
Mr.. Orioles confessional was deserted.
The fear of Nassie kept penitents at a
distance. There were even some girls
who blushed when they met Mrs. Orri-
Gle, and fancied they could read in her
looks that she knew a great deal about
them. But this was not the case. Igna-
tia Orricle. during the first twelve
months of her welded life, never made
the remotest allusion to her husbands
proceedings in the confessional. She
was quiet young woman, neither pretty
nor plain, with intelligent eyes and de-
corous manners-quite pattern clergy
mans wife Perhaps she had no desire
to see the confessional employed again.
She herself had only come to it once be-
fore her marriage, and on this occasion
she had casually confessed amongst
other things that she should inherit
$1,000 year when her grandmother died.
After her marriage, which followed close
upon this revelation, she had nothing
more to confess; at least, she never
asked her husband to tell her of any
clergyman beside himself who kept a
confessional open to all Corners. 1t is
worth observing, by-the-by, that married
gentlemen who advocate confession sell
dom encourage their wives to go and
confess their domestic troubles to other
members of the cloth. Rev. Peter ORR
Gle was no exception to this rule.
But year after Mr.. Orioles mar
riage his wifes grandmother died and
left Ignatia nothing. From that moment
the vicar of St. Benedict became mel
ancholy man, and his life was soured
The parish noticed that there was some
thing wrong. for the vicar began dismal
ly to allude in his sermons to the deceit
fulness of the flesh, to the blessedness of
monkery, and virginhood, and once more
he exhorted his parishioners to come
and unbosorn themselves in his oratory.
II Mr.. Orricie had waxed plump and
prospered in matrimony, they would
have stayed away, but he was hand
some man. and doleful looks suited him
we'll. His nasal laments were also very
touching when he was truly sad. Wo-
men are VIGOROUSLY pitiful; they saw
that Mr.. Orrlcle was growing estranged
from his wife; and while they pitied the
vicar, they thronged to his confessional
With some secret charitable hope of max
ing themselves disagreeable to Nassie.
They did not make themselves dis
agreeable to Nassie; but they were mis-
taken if they thought that Ignatia Orri-
Gle Was going to submit tamely to being
annoyed by them and her husband. Ig-
malta was not one Of your nervous women
Who melt into tears, scream ana scold.
She had q tongue which could cut like
razor, and keen, perspicacioas mind
whieh could measure the shortest road
out of difficulty, and tread on the same
With q resolute foot. She saw that q
crisis had arrived in her domestic affairs.
2haE disappointment about her grand
nother's money was very grievous, bat
- vas not responsible for il, and,
ohsrsfore, il beho0ved her 10 go that she
- not made 70 bear the penalty Of il 10