hands and his rather steely mouth, the mere set of which
suggested controversy of an uncompromising kind. Naturally as the
Church had claimed Bastin, so medicine claimed Bickley.

Now as it happened the man who succeeded my father as vicar of
Fulcombe was given a better living and went away shortly after I
had purchased the place and with it the advowson. Just at this
time also I received a letter written in the large, sprawling
hand of Bastin from whom I had not heard for years. It went
straight to the point, saying that he, Bastin, had seen in a
Church paper that the last incumbent had resigned the living of
Fulcombe which was in my gift. He would therefore be obliged if I
would give it to him as the place he was at in Yorkshire did not
suit his wife's health.

Here I may state that afterwards I learned that what did not
suit Mrs. Bastin was the organist, who was pretty. She was by
nature a woman with a temperament so insanely jealous that
actually she managed to be suspicious of Bastin, whom she had
captured in an unguarded moment when he was thinking of something
else and who would as soon have thought of even looking at any
woman as he would of worshipping Baal. As a matter of fact it
took him months to know one female from another. Except as
possible providers of subscriptions and props of Mothers'
Meetings, women had no interest for him.

To return--with that engaging honesty which I have mentioned--
Bastin's letter went on to set out all his own disabilities,
which, he added, would probably render him unsuitable for the
place he desired to fill. He was a High Churchman, a fact which