But then the rector was always on
friendly terms with them: and made no distinction, in distributing
Christmas charities, between the poor old folks who went to church or to
chapel, Or, as it was said regretfully, to no place at all. He had his
failings; but the one point on which all Upton agreed was, that their
church and rector were the best between that town and London.
It was a hard struggle with David Chantrey, this beloved rector of
Upton, to resolve upon leaving his parish, though only for a time, when
his physicians strenuously urged him to spend two winters, and the
intervening summer, in Madeira. Very definitely they assured him that
such an absence was his only chance of assuring a fair share of the
ordinary term of human life. But it was a difficult thing to do, apart
from the hardness of the struggle; and the difficulty just verged upon
an impossibility. The living was not a rich one, its whole income being
a little under L400 a year. Now, when he had provided a salary for the
curate who must take his duty, and decided upon the smallest sum
necessary for his own expenses, the remainder, in whatever way the sum
was worked, was clearly quite insufficient for the maintenance of his
young wife and child.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25