Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-05-22
A CLERGlCAL woRLDLlNG.

Tie shutters of the rectory windows
were wide open. This was very unlike
the policy of the rector Of st. AIMS, who
invariably prayed to be delivered from
the flies, dust and all disorderliness.
But there had come change in the life
Of Rev. Arthur Dibbins, as there ever
must be in mutable things He had mar
NED wealth, and with wealth, bondage.
It was the will of Mrs. Dibbins that the
shutters should henceforth be open, and
to this new state of affairs the rector was
reconciled by many compensations.
His shades had been torn down in a
frenzy, and were now usurped by beau
tifully- fashioned screens of fine brass
links, purchased in Egypt. There was
drapery from Persia. and revolving fan,
like elave in attendance over Mr.. DID
bins brown head where he sat. Hor-
tense. a Frenchwoman, removed every
particle of dust before it had settled.
His papers were filed and docketed with
aseystem that he could only wonder and
admire. He was clad in a jacket of i'm
ported stuff, and crossed his slippered
feet albeit eighths--on fender of ex-
traordinary workmanship.
All, yes! Heaven had sent compensa-
lions. He had married Miss Rachel
Plympton with the full consent and APP
prOval of her parents-for, himself penni-
less his salary of four thousand year
counted as nothing from the Plympton
standpoint), he was master of degree
Ofpopularity and clerical eminence which
constituted a fine stock in trade.
He was a handsome man, past forty,
with dark, sallow complexion, good
eyes, and hair and mustache Of youth
full cut. His manner was nervous and
self-conscious, yet saturated with the
aroma of culture which years of uninter-
rupted prosperity exhale.
For the Rev. Arthur Dibbins to fall
down or stumble up, was an horrid
anomaly; it produced at once laughter
and shock.
The wedding festivities over, the bridal
couple had sailed for Europe. They
were very i'll on the voyage, but recover
cd their strength and dignity in cathe-
'dral aisles and galleries of art. They
summered on the Alps, and wintered in
the Riviera; sailed up the Nile and down
the Rhine; crossed the glaciers and pene-
trated jungles; the products of all
which were shipped to Liverpool in pom
derous boxes and conveyed thence
for the transformation of the rectory,
which was being torn almost from its
foundations.
They had had a delightful trip. But
were capable of enjoying those inner
sscrets known only to the tourist who
reads end imagines between the lines of
his Badeker. 1t had rained occasionally
when they had wished to be out of door,
and they had experienced the usual
one might say, the CONGRATULATIONS
which follow in the wake of cabmen and
couriers. The former had outraged
them, and the latter had thwarted their
fondest desires.
On the whole, however, that intangi-
bic perfume of manner which is so
quickly dissipated by gross forms of adj
versity, had, in the person of Rev. Ar
thur Dibbins, suffered no loss.
Seated in the breakfast-room of the
rectory-the return voyage over-he
was enabled to live again in the objects
around him, the charmed existence of
the past fourteen months. Rachel, in a
Paris creation" smiled from behind the
urn like an Aurora sprung from the can
vas. She had superintended the execu-
ton of his favorite dishes-for it must
be confessed that Arthur's palate, as well
as his soul, had undergone cultivation
abroad which were now steaming with
gentle invitation from Dresden recep-
tacles before him. There were flowers
in crystal vases on the cloth, and as he
leisurely slipped his chocolate, his left
hand upon the leaves of an embellished
volume.
The great archdeacon was to perform
In the rectory drawing room that morn
ing, the entertainment consisting of his
lecture upon Dandte, for an elect few.
Mr.. and Mrs. Dibbins had been MINERS
ed for days in biographies AMI criticisms
of the poet.
The rector was familiar with every
original line of Dante; he followed him
sdoringly, however critically, through
purgatory, paradise and hell. He had
psrtrait of him in a pretty elaborated
frame. before which he poised his slend-
or figure and commented, for the benefit
of his guests, upon his grief-worn face.
He could extract mouth, brow and eyes,
separately, and trace their expression to
certain well-de6ned phases of spiritual
throes. He cursed Florence, and ap-
otheosized the wide world which had
fostered such great genius.
"There were many people" he said,
asto whom Providence had ordained that
the world should be unkind. To in
terfere with this intention was dang
erous matter, the loss, perhaps, of our
greatest poets and painters"
On the morning in question he turned
the leaves of the volume before him with
reviving interest. Now and then read a
passage aloud to his wife, as:
1.-The people of Verona, when they
saw him on the street, used to say: &c
-corip nom CHI state all Inferno
there is a man that was in heil-ah, yes,
he had been in hell; in hell enough, in
long, severe sorrow and struggle; as the
like of him is pretty sure to have been.
Commedies that come out divine are not
accomplished otherwise"
Mr.. Dibbins' mind seized acutely
upon word pictures of this character.
He appreciated them, he even believed