“Who has the appointing of the incumbent? The bishop of the diocese or some nobleman?”
“Neither. The living is attached to Haymore Manor, and is in the gift of the new squire.”
In the gift of the new squire, and that squire Kightly Montgomery under a new name!
The thought of this complication turned Jennie pale. In her dismay and confusion, she could settle upon but one course—the course she had thought of all along—to tell her father everything; every single fact she knew concerning Kightly Montgomery.
The minister was now watching her curiously, anxiously.
To cover her distress, she asked the first question that came into her head, and not an irrelevant one:
“Were the terms favorable upon which you agreed to take this parish for a year, papa?”
“Well, yes, I suppose so. The living is worth six hundred pounds a year, and Orton gives me two hundred, with the use of the rectory.”
“And you do all the work for one-third of the salary?”
“Yes, my dear; and I am very glad to do it. And there are hundreds of capable clergymen in England who would be glad to do it for one-sixth of the salary.”