Moreover, his money was coming to an end,
and another year at the Theological College would have compelled him to
borrow from Mr. Ogilvie, a step which he was most anxious to avoid. He
found that Galton, which he remembered from the days when he had sent
Cyril Pomeroy there to be met by Dorward, was a small county town of
some eight or nine thousand inhabitants and that St. Luke's was a new
church which had originally been a chapel of ease to the parish church,
but which had acquired with the growth of a poor population on the
outskirts of the town an independent parochial status of its own. The
Reverend Arnold Shuter, who was the first vicar, was at first glance
just a nervous bearded man, though Mark soon discovered that he
possessed a great deal of spiritual force. He was a widower and lived in
the care of a housekeeper who regarded religion as the curse of good
cooking. Latterly he had suffered from acute neurasthenia, and three or
four of his wealthier parishioners--they were only relatively
wealthy--had clubbed together to guarantee the stipend of a curate. Mark
was to live at the Vicarage, a detached villa, with pointed windows and
a front door like a lychgate, which gave the impression of having been
built with what material was left over from building the church.
Pages:
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546