“I have ample funds for all such purposes; and ignorant as the people are at present, we will so educate them that by degrees they will see the value and significance of the improvements we are introducing,” answered Mr Lerew; “I contemplate having a reredos erected, which will add greatly to the beauty of the church; as it will be expensive, I own, I trust that you and other friends will contribute from your means towards the important work. I wish to ornament those blank spaces along the aisle with appropriate pictures. I should prefer having them painted on the walls, of medallion shape; but as it may be difficult to get an artist down here, we must be content to have them in moveable frames. I purpose also having a large picture of the Crucifixion, or perhaps one of the Holy Virgin, put up over the altar, instead of the Ten Commandments, which greatly offend my eye; while I confess that I cannot consider the altar complete without the symbol of our faith placed on it. I should have preferred a crucifix of full size, and I think that the cross might be so arranged that the figure can at any time be added; but I fear that at present some of the parishioners in their ignorance might raise objections which would cause us some trouble.”
“I should think, indeed, that they would object!” exclaimed Mr Lennard. “Are you not going on too fast? I do not complain that your improvements cast some reflection on me; as being a mere locum tenens, I could not have made the alterations you propose, even had I wished to do so; but others might find very great fault with you.”
“You will come over fully to agree with me, as my kind friends Sir Reginald and Lady Bygrave have done,” said the vicar, and with a gentle smile he bid his host good-bye.
Scarcely had Mr Lerew gone than a note was brought to Mr Lennard, from Lady Bygrave, requesting him, with his son and daughter, to spend a few days at Swanston Hall. Lady Bygrave was a very charming person, and pleasant people were generally to be met with at the Hall. He gladly accepted the invitation. Alfred was delighted; Mary would rather have gone back to stay with Clara. Mr Lennard was somewhat surprised to find that the abbé and Father Lascelles were still there. “The friends to whom they were going were unable to receive them, and Sir Reginald requested them to stay on as long as they found it convenient,” remarked Lady Bygrave. Mr Lennard was disappointed at finding no one else at the house, with the exception of a young lady rather older than Mary, of grave and sedate manners. As she was dressed in black, Mr Lennard concluded that she was in mourning for a parent or some other near relative, which accounted for the gravity of one so young. She, however, smiled very sweetly when Mary was introduced to her, and said in a gentle voice, “I know that we shall become good friends, so pray let us begin at once, and talk to each other without reserve.”
Mr Lennard, who had often wished that Mary could enjoy the companionship of a girl of her own age, was glad to find so apparently amiable a young lady in the house. The abbé, on entering the room, expressed his pleasure at seeing Mr Lennard, and certainly did his best to make amends for the want of other society. Father Lascelles, observing that Alfred did not know what to do with himself, proposed taking a turn round the grounds. “I am not much of a sportsman,” he said as they walked on, “but I am fond of fishing, as I dare say you are, and we will fish together to-morrow, if you like.” He had discovered that angling—an art in which he was an adept in more ways than one—was the only amusement which suited Alfred’s tastes.
The few days spent at the Hall went rapidly by. At first the abbé carefully avoided any but secular subjects, and being a remarkably well-informed man, he made himself very agreeable. Even when Sir Reginald or Lady Bygrave seemed inclined to speak on religion, he quickly turned the conversation, but by degrees he, with apparent unwillingness, entered into matters of faith. Mr Lennard, who had never given any attention to the Papal system, was surprised to find how little, according to the abbé’s showing, the Church of England differed from that of Rome in all matters of importance.
“Ah,” remarked the abbé, with a smile, “your Church is like a wandering child—though you have gone away from the parent, you retain all your main features and doctrines, and have but to own obedience to the chief head, and you would again be one with us. What a happy consummation! Would that it were brought about! Why should those of the same kindred be divided?”
“It is sad that it should be so,” remarked Lady Bygrave, “perhaps, if His Holiness, the Pope, were not so exigeant in his demands, the glorious union might soon be accomplished.”
“It is there that you are in error, my dear lady,” remarked the abbé, blandly; “His Holiness is too loving a parent to be exigeant without good reason. Think of the parable of the Prodigal Son—what a warm welcome! what rich treasures the father had for him, who was willing to return! such as all will experience who, having eaten of the husks of Protestantism, fly back to the bosom of the mother-Church.”
Mr Lennard above all things hated an argument, and would always rather side with a companion than oppose him; still he was not won by the sophisms of the abbé; but he did not, unhappily, reflect on the effect they might produce on Alfred and Mary. He had studied the Thirty-nine Articles when he had taken his ordination vows, and he saw that the opinions expressed by Lady Bygrave, and occasionally by Sir Reginald, who was even more open than his wife, could not be reconciled to them. The abbé never uttered a word which showed that he considered there were any material differences in the two creeds, with the exception of the single one of want of obedience to the heads of the Church.