"But, my dear fellow; you married her to be a helpmeet for you. I don't think a man has any right to marry a girl and then to keep her entirely to himself just to make his home comfortable, when there is God's work to be done. I think you should trust her with God. It is no good keeping people blissfully ignorant of the sin that abounds. Besides, ignorance is not innocence. It is almost as if you were leading her about blindfold."
"My mother felt very strongly about it," said Luke. And yet for the first time a suspicion crossed his mind that possibly he was denying to Rachel from selfish motives, the wonderful privilege of working for God in the Parish. He could not bear that his sweet wife should touch pitch even though it was in God's service. He remembered saying to her what a rest it was for him to come home and be with someone who knew nothing of the awful matters with which he had come in contact during the day. Might not this be a subtle form of selfishness on his part?
"Do you suppose that the women who go as Missionaries," added the Bishop "have the faintest idea of the horrors they will see and learn about? Yet you would not urge them to stay at home. Help her to work for her God regardless of the consequences. Leave these with God. Besides you may not always have your mother who I suppose is as good as a curate to you."
Luke determined to think the matter out when alone, and was soon pacing the nut walk with a fellow clergyman discussing the attitude of the modernists in the Church of England.
[CHAPTER VIII.]
THE BISHOP COMES TO LUNCH.
The opinion of his mother weighed with Luke more than that of his Bishop.
After the sudden suspicion that he had been unconsciously giving way to selfishness in not encouraging Rachel to work, he made up his mind that he must talk the matter over.
"My dear boy," said Mrs. Greville, "Rachel is no more fit to work in a parish than a child of five years old, and particularly in this parish. She has been buried in the country all her life and is absolutely incapable of doing any good till she has had anyhow a little experience."