the more miserable, for she knew how lamentable were her present
deficiencies. When she married a poor curate, having, herself, only
a few hundred pounds' fortune, she had made up her mind to a life of
comparative poverty; but she had meant even in her poverty to be
decent, respectable, and lady-like. Weak health, nine children, an
improvident husband, and an income so lamentably ill-suited to her
wants, had however been too much for her, and she had degenerated into
a slatternly, idle scold.

In a short time the parson came in from his farm, rusty and
muddy--rusty, from his clerical dress; muddy from his farming
occupations; and Lord Ballindine went into the business of his embassy.
He remembered, however, how plainly he had heard the threats about the
uneaten fat, and not wishing the household to hear all he had to say
respecting Fanny Wyndham, he took the parson out into the road before
the house, and, walking up and down, unfolded his proposal.

Mr Armstrong expressed extreme surprise at the nature of the mission on
which he was to be sent; secondly at the necessity of such a mission at
all; and thirdly, lastly, and chiefly, at the enormous amount of the
heiress's fortune, to lose which he declared would be an unpardonable
sin on Lord Ballindine's part. He seemed to be not at all surprised
that Lord Cashel should wish to secure so much money in his own family;
nor did he at all participate in the unmeasured reprobation with which
Frank loaded the worthy earl's name. One hundred and thirty thousand
pounds would justify anything, and he thought of his nine poor
children, his poor wife, his poor home, his poor two hundred a-year,
and his poor self. He calculated that so very rich a lady would most
probably have some interest in the Church, which she could not but
exercise in his favour, if he were instrumental in getting her married;