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I daresay, though, he has it all arranged he said I might leave it to him. You won't tell him, John, what a fright I have given myself?" So her tongue ran on as they descended the hill together. John Romley walked beside her stupidly, wondering if she were in truth reassured or chattering thus to keep up her hopes. They might, after all, be justified: but his forebodings weighed on his tongue.
"Why, of course I do." "But father forbade it!" "To be sure he did." "Then all I can say is" Patty rose to her feet in the strength of her disapproval "that I call it disgraceful, and I'm perfectly ashamed of you!" "But, good Heavens! he forbade you to see Romley." "But not to write." "O-o!" Hetty mused with her pretty mouth shaped to the letter. "And now, I suppose, he has forbidden that too?"
Indeed the courtship proceeded to the gentle envy of her sisters until one fatal night when Romley, in the rectory parlour at Wroote, attuned his voice to sing the Vicar of Bray. In his study Mr. Wesley heard it. He, of all men, was no Vicar of Bray, albeit he had abjured Dissent: but he felt his cloth insulted, and by this fribble of his own order.
He had breakfasted, and their entrance surprised him with an empty pewter in his hand, his chair thrust back sideways from the table, his legs extended towards the empty fire-place, and his eyes bent on his handsome calves with a somewhat moody frown. "Who told you to bring him?" John Romley stood in the doorway behind Hetty's shoulder.
And she had dressed early and climbed to the cathedral, not to pray, but to seek Romley because she had instant need of him; because, though she respected his character very little, he was the one man in the world who could help her. She had missed him at the door. Entering, she learned from a verger that he was already robing. Then the great organ sounded, and from habit she dropped on her knees.
The bandaged hand waved jauntily over the Teller's head. "Ah, men," he said, almost clearly, and tried to lift himself on his arm, "I tell you it's a grand eleven we have this year! There will be little left of anything that stands against them. Did you see Jim Romley ride over his man this afternoon?"
"I wouldn't be in a hurry, miss. You can master him, if you try you and the parson: and the worst of 'em's better than none. And you that pretty, too!" "I don't understand you," answered Hetty coldly, and passed on. John Romley was patrolling the pavement outside. She forced up a smile to meet him. "There has been some difficulty with the licence," said she, and marvelled at her own calmness.
She turned to him bravely and quietly, albeit with the scare in her face. "I ought not to have brought you in like this. You will not mind waiting outside, will you? a minute only while I explain " Romley bent his head and walked out, closing the door. "Dear" Hetty turned "you must forgive me, but I could not rest until I had brought him."
He emerged, twenty minutes later, with his white bands twisted, his hat awry, and a smear of blood on the surplice he carried altogether a very unclerical-looking figure. On the way back to his inn he kept looking at his cut knuckles, and, arriving, called for a noggin of brandy. The hour struck: but John Romley sat on in the coffee-room staring stupidly at his knuckles.
Well, I don't mind owning to you I was nervous as a cat: but there, if you didn't detect it I shall flatter myself I did passably." He laughed, evidently on the best terms with himself. His breath smelt of beer. "The Rector is with you, of course?" "My father? But, Mr. Romley, I don't think you understand " "I shall do myself the pleasure of calling on him this morning.
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