Barnham Rectory [antikvár]

CHAPTER I " It "will be nice," said Austin Mapperly, " to have Audrey home." " Will it?" said his son Thomas, without animation. " I don't suppose she'll be a lot of use to me." The Reverend Austin sighed, and forebore to say the many things another father would have said; as, for instance, "Can't you see things from another person's point of view sometimes ? " or more succinctly, " You're not everybody ! " He remembered instead Thomas's handicaps of body and spirit, and only re-marked, " Well, she'll be a tremendous help to me. I must say I think she's throwing herself away, electing to bury herself here, but she wishes to do it, and no doubt she knows best." " Not throwing herself away, surely, labouring in your beloved vineyard ? " said Thomas with a shadowy sneer. " There's something in the Bible about losing one's life in order to find it. She's insured, spiritually. " " So she is," agreed Austin amiably, taking the wind out of Thomas's sails, " but I don't suppose she looks at it like that—not if I know Audrey. She's an idealist. She isn't given to calculating either the gain or the cost. And ľd hate to have her otherwise. Only I do feel that with her brains and her good degrees she might have gone in for something lucrative, instead of choosing to be my unpaid curate." " How worldly of you, Austin ! But how true. She's had an expensive éducation, and speaking as a mere