and a face which recalled that of Darwin. The resemblance pleased
him. Privately he accepted the theory of organic evolution,
reconciling it with a very broad Anglicanism; in his public
utterances he touched upon the Darwinian doctrine with a weary
disdain. This contradiction involved no insincerity; Mr. Lashmar
merely held in contempt the common understanding, and declined to
expose an esoteric truth to vulgar misinterpretation. Yet he often
worried about it--as he worried over everything.

Nearer causes of disquiet were not lacking to him. For several years
the income of his living had steadily decreased; his glebe, upon
which he chiefly depended, fell more and more under the influence of
agricultural depression, and at present he found himself, if not
seriously embarrassed, likely to be so in a very short time. He was
not a good economist; he despised everything in the nature of
parsimony; his ideal of the clerical life demanded a liberal
expenditure of money no less than unsparing personal toil. He had
generously exhausted the greater part of a small private fortune;
from that source there remained to him only about a hundred pounds a
year. His charities must needs be restricted; his parish outlay must
be pinched; domestic life must proceed on a narrower basis. And all
this was to Mr. Lashmar supremely distasteful.

Not less so to Mr. Lashmar's wife, a lady ten years his junior,
endowed with abundant energies in every direction save that of
household order and thrift. Whilst the vicar stood waiting for
breakfast, tapping drearily on the window-pane, Mrs. Lashmar entered
the room, and her voice sounded the deep, resonant note which
announced a familiar morning mood.