connected with the service; but Lady Price had no notion of taking on
her uncalled-for outlay. The parish must do its part, and it was
called on to do so in modes that did not add to the Rector's
popularity. Moreover, the arrangements were on the principle of
getting as much as possible out of everybody, and no official failed
to feel the pinch. The Rector was as bland, gentle, and obliging as
ever; but he seldom transacted any affairs that he could help; and in
the six years that had elapsed since the marriage, every person
connected with the church had changed, except Mr. Underwood.

Yet perhaps as senior curate, he had felt the alteration most
heavily. He had to be, or to refuse to be, my Lady's instrument in
her various appeals; he came in for her indignation at wastefulness,
and at the unauthorised demands on the Rector; he had to feel what it
was to have no longer unlimited resources of broth and wine to fall
back upon at the Rectory; he had to supply the shortcomings of the
new staff brought in on lower terms--and all this, moreover, when his
own health and vigour were beginning to fail.

Lady Price did not like him or his family. They were poor, and she
distrusted the poor; and what was worse, she knew they were better
born and better bred than herself, and had higher aims. Gentle Mrs.
Underwood, absorbed in household cares, no more thought of rivalry
with her than with the Queen; but the soft movement, the low voice,
the quiet sweep of the worn garments, were a constant vexation to my
Lady, who having once pronounced the curate's wife affected, held to
her opinion. With Mr. Underwood she had had a fight or two, and had
not conquered, and now they were on terms of perfect respect and
civility on his side, and of distance and politeness on hers. She
might talk of him half contemptuously, but she never durst show