"Beneficed!" she cried. "Ah! poor lad, I wish he were! If I had my will it would not all go to that lazy vicar, who never does a ha'pworth of good, but rides to hounds and preaches his father's sermons, because he cannot make one for himself."
"Ha!" cried the old man, "be off with you, young ones. Miss Orrin is going to receive spiritual direction and absolution."
The tall old woman started up, her right hand upon the bread knife, as if she could have killed her master with it on the spot.
"Well would it be for you, Hobby Stennis, if you did the like!" she said, restraining herself with difficulty. "But there's Mr. Ablethorpe, and he must not be kept waiting!"
"Of course not, Miss Orrin," said Mr. Stennis sneeringly. "It were a pity indeed that he should—and he come so far to administer spiritual consolation to conscious sinners!"
Then the old woman was roused to fury.
"Sinner am I?" she said, going up and bending her body till her face came within an inch of two of that of the old man, who was seated, pretending to go on with his tea. "Sinner am I? Well, I do not deny it. But at least, if sinner I be, it is that I may find a home and a livelihood for those three poor things, whom God hath bereft of their reason! But as for you—for what do you sin—sin till the sand of the sea could hardly tell the multitude of your crimes, poured from the hand like water, a grain for a sin? For money—yes, for dirty gold! For money which you dare not spend, and for gear which you dare not show! Answer me that! And if sinner I be—I have never heard or read that the Gospel is not for sinners! Do I not need it the more, Hobby Stennis? And the young man is a good young man, and speaks to me of high things—such as I need much, and you more!"
"Have your shown him your Mumbo-Jumbo worship in the barn? Or your sisters, kneeling before the little coffins—all that flummery? You ought to be ashamed—you, Aphra Orrin, you, a woman of sense, and able to know better!"
"And if I told Mr. Ablethorpe all, he would understand," retorted the old maid. "He would understand that those who cannot know God must be content with such a God as they can understand!"
Mr. Stennis laughed, but there was a false ring in his laughter.