'I suppose they think it is a bore getting up so early,' said Mr. Oriel.
'Ah, a bore!' said Miss Gushing, in an enthusiastic tone of depreciation. 'How insensate they must be! To me it gives a new charm to life. It quiets one for the day; makes one so much fitter for one's daily trials and daily troubles. Does it not, Mr. Oriel?'
'I look upon morning prayer as an imperative duty, certainly.'
'Oh, certainly, a most imperative duty; but so delicious at the same time. I spoke to Mrs. Umbleby about it, but she said she could not leave the children.'
'No: I dare say not,' said Mr. Oriel.
'And Mr. Umbleby said his business kept him up so late at night.'
'Very probably. I hardly expect the attendance of men of business.'
'But the servants might come, mightn't they, Mr. Oriel?'
'I fear that servants seldom can have time for daily prayers in church.'
'Oh, ah, no; perhaps not.' And then Miss Gushing began to bethink herself of whom should be composed the congregation which it must be presumed Mr. Oriel wished to see around him. But on this matter he did not enlighten her.
Then Miss Gushing took to fasting on Fridays, and made some futile attempts to induce her priest to give her the comfort of confessional absolution. But, unfortunately, the zeal of the master waxed cool as that of the pupil waxed hot; and, at last, when the young thing returned to Greshamsbury from an autumn excursion which she had made with Mrs. Umbleby to Weston-super-Mare, she found that the delicious morning services had died a natural death. Miss Gushing did not on that account give up the game, but she was bound to fight with no particular advantage in her favour.
Miss Oriel, though a good church woman, was by no means a convert to her brother's extremest views, and perhaps gave but scanty credit to the Gushings, Athelings, and Opie Greens for the sincerity of their religion. But, nevertheless, she and her brother were stanch friends; and she still hoped to see the day when he might be induced to think that an English parson might get through his parish work with the assistance of a wife better than he could do so without such feminine encumbrance. The girl whom she selected for his bride was not the young thing, but Beatrice Gresham.
And at last it seemed probable to Mr. Oriel's nearest friends that he was in a fair way to be overcome. Not that he had
