"Oh!" said Ethelind, "he deserves to be rich, he would make such good
use of wealth, for even now, he is very charitable."

"Charitable!" re-echoed Beatrice, "a curate, on perhaps less than a
hundred a year, must have a deal to be charitable with. Absurd: I
grant you he may have the heart, but certainly not the means."

"I know not," said Ethelind, "but I hear continually of the good he
does, and his kindness to the poor, and doubt if the Honourable
Frederic Eardly will do as much."

"Out upon these proud scions of nobility, I have not common patience
with the younger members of the aristocracy, taking holy orders solely
for the sake of aggrandizing the elder branches of the family; they
are rarely actuated by pious motives."

"We had only one service a-day till Mr. Barclay came, and now he
officiates morning and evening, besides managing to do duty, in the
afternoon, for a sick clergyman, who lives five miles off, and has a
large family, two of whom our worthy curate educates,--"

"No more," Ethelind, or my heart will be irrecoverably gone; but what
large house is that I see among the trees?"

"That is Eardly House."

"And do the family ever reside there?"

"They have not, since we have been in this part of the world, but when
in England, I am told, they spend part of every summer here."