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He determined, therefore, to accept the goods the gods had provided him, clogged though they were with alloy, like so many other gifts of fortune; and accordingly he wrote a letter to Lord Stapledean, in which he stated "that he would accept the living, subject to the stipulations named namely, the payment to his mother, during her life, of three hundred and fifty pounds per annum out of the tithes."
"Sometimes, I almost think she would wish to take my place in the pulpit." "The wish is not at all unnatural, my dear fellow." "The truth is, that Lord Stapledean's message to her, and his conduct about the living, has quite upset her. I cannot blame Lord Stapledean. What he did was certainly kind. But I do blame myself. I never should have accepted the living on those terms never, never.
"Two thousand pounds is every shilling she has every shilling." And then she shook her head again. She knew that the ecclesiastical income was her own; for had not the good Lord Stapledean given it to her? But she had sad thoughts, and feared that even on this point there might be a contest between her and her son. Two mornings after this the blow came very suddenly.
He was just in orders then, and so you were good enough to put him into the living that is to say, not exactly into the living; but to make him curate, as it were; and you allocated the income to me; and " "Allocated the income!" said Lord Stapledean, putting up his hands in token of unlimited surprise. "Yes, my lord.
Lord Stapledean had, at any rate, thoroughly convinced her that the vicarage-house belonged to the vicar to the vicar male, and not to the vicar female; and now that her eyes had been opened on this point, she found herself obliged to confess that Adela Gauntlet would not make a bad wife. "Of course we shall be poor, mother; but we expect that." "I hope you will, at least, be happy," said Mrs.
I know how jealous you are because Lord Stapledean has thought proper to " she could not exactly remember what phrase would best suit her purpose "to to to place me here, as he placed your poor father before. I have seen it all, Arthur. But I have my duty to do, and I shall do it. What I have undertaken in this parish I shall go through with, and if you oppose me I shall apply to his lordship."
And then, muttering something as to his hope that the inn was comfortable, and saying that the state of his health prohibited him from entertaining visitors, the marquis again put out his fingers, and Arthur soon found himself in the gig on his journey to Bowes. He intended returning to town on the following day by the twelve-o'clock mail, of which Lord Stapledean had spoken.
"We none of us do that so thoroughly as to require no other source of happiness. Go on, Dumpling, and do your duty." "I see that you are very careful in doing yours." "Perhaps you will hardly believe me, but I wish Lord Stapledean had never given me the living." "Well; it is difficult to believe that. Think what it has been for your sisters."
Armed with that he would face his mother, though she appeared armed from head to foot in the Stapledean panoply. While he was reading his letter he was at breakfast with them all; and when he had finished it for the second time, he handed it across the table to his mother. "Oh! I suppose so," was her only answer, as she gave it him back.
But it was not destined that the Wilkinsons should be reduced even to such poverty as this. The vicarage of Hurst Staple was in the gift of the noble family of Stapledean. The late vicar had been first tutor and then chaplain to the marquis, and the vicarage had been conferred on him by his patron. In late years none of the Wilkinsons had seen anything of the Stapledean family.
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