A deep flush overspread the vicar’s face at this speech. Even his striking amiability was not quite proof against the quiet sneer. No annoyance, however, appeared in his tone as he said—
“Certainly I should not think of encouraging him to marry while these cruel rumors continue to be spread about him. It would only be misery for both of them. But if once the evil reports were silenced and forgotten, I should urge him to find happiness in what I have myself found to be the surest and best place to look for it—domestic pleasures.”
Ned appeared to consider this proposition thoughtfully for some moments. Then he said—
“It’s curious that you should be the first of your family that I ever heard to be of your way of thinking, parson, isn’t it?”
Again Mr. Brander reddened. It was an annoying thing for a popular spiritual autocrat to be questioned in this inquisitorial way by a man in no way qualified to be a judge of him or his family. But his patience was equal even to this trial. He said, very mildly—
“Yes, I am afraid—that is I believe that is so.”
“Well, then, I think it’s too much to expect to find another in the same generation.”
There was a pause; the vicar looking mildly grieved, Ned munching a bit of stick with much relish, while he regarded his companion out of the corners of his eyes.
Evening was closing in rapidly. A thin mist was gathering under the trees on the top of the hill, enshrouding the tombstones and softening the outlines of the little white stone church and of the pretty ivy-grown Vicarage. Not a sound was to be heard in the near neighborhood; and the noises of the village—children’s voices, lowing of cattle, and the carter’s cry to his horses—came up faint and subdued from below.
Suddenly this peaceful stillness was broken by a long and dismal howl, which startled the vicar and caused Ned Mitchell to turn his head attentively in the direction of his cottage. A minute later it was repeated, and before a word had been exchanged between the two men on the subject of this strange interruption, a yelping and barking began, and mingled with the howls, which still continued, until the air seemed to vibrate with the discordant sounds.