"Stupid old crone! What am I to do with her? I don't know how to deal with such boors as these."
And reiterating his commands in a voice that brought several urchins peeping in at the window, the discomfited gentleman departed in displeasure.
"There, good riddance to ye!" muttered Mistress Hodge, shutting her door. "It's a deal too botherin', this new religion, and I don't know as I'll come to mass no more: 'taint so smooth and easy if one 'fronts 'em, I can see. Twenty pounds ain't going his way, for good of Church indeed! I shan't quarrel wi' Hodge about it, and no law won't take it from us, nor no Church neither. So if I has to go through purgatory, why let it be, and I don't see as my old bones won't stand it as well as rheumatics, so that's no odds."
While Mr. Freakes was pursuing his impracticable converts, Maude and Evelyn became cottage readers, and Bibles found way into every dwelling within reach. The Catholic experiment did not prosper in that neighbourhood, and the only funds available for the maintenance of the chapel came out of the purse of the young baronet, while he was testing in some happy novitiate abroad his vocation for monastic life, and leaving his ecclesiastical friends to prey upon the resources, and conduct the affairs of his estate at home.
With the recovery of the lost document, ended, as he had promised, Mr. Penacre's interest in the affairs of his absent client. The claim was substantiated by competent authority, and Mrs. Falconer and her children were no longer dependent upon personal exertion, or the sympathy of friends.
Phœbe, having conceived a great terror of Mr. Freakes, earnestly entreated that her departure for India with her orphan charge might be hastened, and not even the prospect of welcoming "Massa Guy" could overcome her dread of some scheme to rob her of her dear mistress's child, or keep her calm and patient after she became aware of the near neighbourhood of a priest of Rome.
She confided to Evelyn the Bible which Guy had given to the Countess, and charged her with many a quaint message of love and praise. But her ideas of England's greatness had been modified by the fact that an idolatrous temple could be erected where martyrs had died to purchase a glorious Reformation. And when instructed on the matter of liberty of conscience and tolerant rule, her simple, God-honouring faith was sorely perplexed to comprehend how national dignity could be advanced, and national character profited, by upholding Truth on the one hand, and pandering to Falsehood on the other.
"Sure," said she, sorrowfully, "dey isn't goin' to let de bad Spirit come back after the grand ole place swept clean, and de rubbish cast out; sure they knows him got seven fine friends to help him, lookin' out for nice home to lib in, and once dem gets in, dey 'll let it be tore to ruins afore dey 'll go out again! Oh, dear Lord, don't let 'em blind dis blessed ole' England nebber no more! Stop de wolf afore him get into Sheepfold! Oh, don't nebber let de grip ob Confession lay hold on dese Englis' homes. Better be black slave in de market, dan kneel white slave at de priest's foot! Amen."
