The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (best fiction novels of all time .TXT) 📕

“They are so much respected everywhere as good and pious men!”

“I do not doubt it. Nothing tends so much to respect as a good income. But they may be excellent men without being excellent bishops. I find no fault with them, but much with the system by which they are controlled. Is it probable that a man should be fitted to select guides for other men’s souls because he has succeeded by infinite labour in his vocation in becoming the leader of a majority in the House of Commons?”

“Indeed, no,” said Lady Carbury, who did not in the least understand the nature of the question put to her.

“And when you’ve got your bishop, is it likely that a man should be able to do his duty in that capacity who has no power of his own to decide whether a clergyman under him is or is not fit for his duty?”

“Hardly, indeed.”

“The English people, or some of them⁠—that some being the richest, and, at present, the most powerful⁠—like to play at having a Church, though there is not sufficient faith in them to submit to the control of a Church.”

“Do you think men should be controlled by clergymen, Mr. Barham?”

“In matters of faith I do; and so, I suppose, do you; at least you make that profession. You declare it to be your duty to submit yourself to your spiritual pastors and masters.”

“That, I thought, was for children,” said Lady Carbury. “The clergyman, in the catechism, says, ‘My good child.’ ”

“It is what you were taught as a child before you had made profession of your faith to a bishop, in order that you might know your duty when you had ceased to be a child. I quite agree, however, that the matter, as viewed by your Church, is childish altogether, and intended only for children. As a rule, adults with you want no religion.”

“I am afraid that is true of a great many.”

“It is marvellous to me that, when a man thinks of it, he should not be driven by very fear to the comforts of a safer faith⁠—unless, indeed, he enjoy the security of absolute infidelity.”

“That is worse than anything,” said Lady Carbury with a sigh and a shudder.

“I don’t know that it is worse than a belief which is no belief,” said the priest with energy;⁠—“than a creed which sits so easily on a man that he does not even know what it contains, and never asks himself as he repeats it, whether it be to him credible or incredible.”

“That is very bad,” said Lady Carbury.

“We’re getting too deep, I think,” said Roger, putting down the book which he had in vain been trying to read.

“I think it is so pleasant to have a little serious conversation on Sunday evening,” said Lady Carbury. The priest drew himself back into his chair and smiled. He was quite clever enough to understand that Lady Carbury had been talking nonsense, and clever enough also to be aware of the cause of Roger’s uneasiness. But Lady Carbury might be all the easier converted because she understood nothing and was fond of ambitious talking; and Roger Carbury might possibly be forced into conviction by the very feeling which at present made him unwilling to hear arguments.

“I don’t like hearing my Church ill-spoken of,” said Roger.

“You wouldn’t like me if I thought ill of it and spoke well of it,” said the priest.

“And, therefore, the less said the sooner mended,” said Roger, rising from his chair. Upon this Father Barham took his departure and walked away to Beccles. It might be that he had sowed some seed. It might be that he had, at any rate, ploughed some ground. Even the attempt to plough the ground was a good work which would not be forgotten.

The following morning was the time on which Roger had fixed for repeating his suit to Henrietta. He had determined that it should be so, and though the words had been almost on his tongue during that Sunday afternoon, he had repressed them because he would do as he had determined. He was conscious, almost painfully conscious, of a certain increase of tenderness in his cousin’s manner towards him. All that pride of independence, which had amounted almost to roughness, when she was in London, seemed to have left her. When he greeted her morning and night, she looked softly into his face. She cherished the flowers which he gave her. He could perceive that if he expressed the slightest wish in any matter about the house she would attend to it. There had been a word said about punctuality, and she had become punctual as the hand of the clock. There was not a glance of her eye, nor a turn of her hand, that he did not watch, and calculate its effect as regarded himself. But because she was tender to him and observant, he did not by any means allow himself to believe that her heart was growing into love for him. He thought that he understood the working of her mind. She could see how great was his disgust at her brother’s doings; how fretted he was by her mother’s conduct. Her grace, and sweetness, and sense, took part with him against those who were nearer to herself, and therefore⁠—in pity⁠—she was kind to him. It was thus he read it, and he read it almost with exact accuracy.

“Hetta,” he said after breakfast, “come out into the garden awhile.”

“Are not you going to the men?”

“Not yet, at any rate. I do not always go to the men as you call it.” She put on her hat and tripped out with him, knowing well that she had been summoned to hear the old story. She had been sure, as soon as she found the white rose in her room, that the old story would be repeated again before she left Carbury;⁠—and, up to this time, she had hardly