Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-04-29
CHAPTER Iy-Continued.

CHAPTER IV-Continued.
cannot but confess that the interest
Miss Eacroix thus manifested in what
touched me awoke in me sensations,
may even say vague hopes, of very
pleasant and consoling kind.
dreamed bright dreams that night,
which hung about me during the next
day. but in the evening they were dis
PEELED somewhat rudely by note
from the bishop requesting me to call
upon him, and by message from the
rector desiring me to call on him.
went first to the bishop. My in
teryiew with him was more agreeable
than 1 had anticipated and I went with
tolerably light heart to the rector.
He was still in bed. My short inter
view with him was not pleasant. The
words we exchanged were warm; but
they do not concern this story except in
their result. He wished, he urged, he
almost ordered me to cease ali recogni-
tion in any way of the existence of the
man Freeman; refused to give any
pledge to that effect-and so I was given
to understand that 1 would not be
wanted in the parish after the six
months for which had been at first
engaged.
1t was only then when my departure
from Timperley seemed imminent i
had already peen almost four months
in the pl..,e) that began to suspect
how very mucli my hopes and affections
had entangled themselves with the
haunting sadness, the unconscious grace
and beauty of Miss LacrCix. What
likelihood was there now. if there ever
had been any, of a poor curate who had
already done something to discount
his chances of preferment-of my being
more than an agreeable and tolerably
sympathetic acquaintance of month
or two. of my hearing her gay more
than $50 very sorry, indeed. that you
are going" and of thus finding the epi-
sode closed? No likelihood at all there
seemed. And yet so much may happen
in two short months. have to admit
that, even in the midst of serious work
(of writing sermon, for instance),
vain, wild thoughts would arise in me
of commencing myself to the young
lady by some great ,service-by, per-
chance, discovering her father, or at
least finding out for certain what had
become of him (although I had yet had
no word from the two friends whom
had asked to make inquiries in Lon
don). But these foolish, fruitless long
ings were soon crowded aside by the
excitement of events.
A strange thing happened which was
a direct result of my hitherto luckless
adventure with Mr.. Freeman. found
that affair had commended me to the
favorable attention of all types of dig
senters in the village; one mark of this
favor especially appreciated, as all
clergymen would-the increased con-
gregations had at church, on Sunday
evenings particularly.
"I almost regret, for my own sake,
oyu know" Freeman said to me one
day, with laugh, "that asked you
to be my chairman at that direlul lect-
ure. I find you are taking many of my
congregation from me-not all together,
? though, l must say that for myself.
But they do their duty by me in the
morning, and then seem to take their
pleasure with you in the evening""
OF those who thus forsook Mr.. Free
man noticed remarkable group of
working folk, whom he had pointed
out to me as the most closely cohering,
and the most curiously inter-related
congeries of families in the village
s. (where there is an excess of cousinship).
They were steady, stolid, shrewd peo-
pie, very comfortably off, yet all of
whom, male and female, worked at the
loom or the chemical vat. My atten-
tion was first attracted to them by
their taking up good seat we'll for
ward, and refusing to bulge when the
butchers family, who paid for it, came
in, and by their evidently being quite
unused to the order of service in
church. The prayer book was a maze
to them, and the rising up and sitting
down constantly took them by surprise.
The family, learned, had vigorously
dissented for generations.
At special flower service (for which
few flowers could be gathered in Tim
perley) they were not in their accus-
toned pew. The church was densely
crowded-more crowded, l think, be-
cause the fact and the reason of my
speedy departure from Timperley had
somehow got abroad. At the end of
the week, however, (on Friday night.
think. a message came to me when 1
was in bed, requesting me to visit at
once man who was dving-one of the
sons of this interesting family. l
dressed, and went.
heard sounds of wailing and lamen-
tation from the house before entered.
passed into the kitchen, a clean,
bright room, in which the men of the
family sat smoking in var ious absorbed
attitudes, oppressed with silence and
sleep. One of the women stopped over
pan on the fire, while the old mother
in firm, clear voice, directed her oper-
stions. She turned to me, saying
merely:
''He's upstairs. He wants bad to
see yo', but at present he's leet i TIL
yed," Qight in the head).
Upstairs found the dying man in
the smaller of the two bedrooms-for
warmth. That sick room, as it then
appeared to me. will not easily be for
gotten. At that dead hour of the
night, when "the very houses seemed
asleep" and even the tall chimney of
the chemical works had ceased to emit
its tinted vapors, the gas fiared full in
the little room, and six persons, men
and women, were round the bed where