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.Stephen’s.The post of thurifer has fallen vacant and I have been asked to fill it.The gentleman who used to do it has embraced the Roman Faith.’‘Well I never,’ said Jane.‘You will be quite busy, then.’‘Yes, Mrs.Cleveland.There will be the Sung Mass at eleven and Solemn Evensong at half-past six, and sometimes a Sung Mass during the week, on Days of Obligation, you know.’‘We must all come and see you swinging the censer,’ Jane began before she realised that it would hardly be practicable.‘Good night,’ she said quickly and hurried back into the dining-room, where Nicholas stood rather disconsolate, looking down at the chop-bones now congealed in their fat.‘Oh, dear, I feel I have failed there,’ he said.‘Darling, you have done no such thing,’ said Jane warmly.‘You can’t help it if he quarrelled with Mr.Mortlake and Mr.Whiting and likes incense and all that sort of thing.’‘What was that you said about finding them all in the choir vestry one evening?’ Nicholas asked.‘I just happened to be passing and heard them all squabbling in there.So I went in to see if there was anything I could do.’‘My poor Jane,’ — he put his arm around her shoulders and they gazed down together at the remains of their supper — ‘what can any of us do with these people?’‘We can only go blundering along in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call us,’ said Jane.‘I was going to be such a splendid clergyman’s wife when I married you, but somehow it hasn’t turned out like The Daisy Chain or The Last Chronicles of Barset.’‘How you would have stood by me if I had been accused of stealing a cheque,’ said Nicholas.‘I can just imagine you! Oh, now who is this coming to the door? Quite a crowd of people.Do you remember our first evening here and how you thought a crowd of parishioners ought to be coming up to the door to welcome us?’‘And nobody came except Mrs.Glaze with a parcel of liver for our supper!’ Jane laughed.‘Well, now I can’t complain.It seems to be Miss Doggett with Jessie and Fabian.I will go and ask Flora to make some coffee.’‘Ah, how nice it is to have you back,’ said Miss Doggett, advancing into the room with her hand outstretched in welcome.‘Mr.Boultbee seems to have done us a good turn,’ said Nicholas.‘I gather his sermons were not much liked.’‘No; we got very tired of Africa and I didn’t feel that what he told us rang quite true.He said that one African chief had had a thousand wives.I found that a little difficult to believe.’‘Well, we know what men are,’ said Jane casually, surprised that Miss Doggett, with her insistence on men only wanting one thing, should have found it difficult to believe.‘Oh, come now,’ protested Fabian, for she seemed to have glanced in his direction.‘And in any case, it was in the olden days, before Mr.Boultbee got to work there.’At this point Flora brought in the coffee, and Jane began to pour it out rather carelessly.‘Jessie and I were thinking that we might as well get married as soon as conveniently possible,’ said Fabian.‘After all, we are neither of us very young.’‘I can arrange that for you at any time,’ said Nicholas.‘You know about banns and licences and that kind of thing, I imagine?’‘Nicholas usually gives a talk to young couples before they marry,’ said Jane hopefully.‘But perhaps it will hardly be necessary in this case.’‘He might just take Fabian aside,’ said Jessie.Nicholas began to talk to them about arrangements, and Miss Doggett said to Jane in a low voice, ‘He has at last decided to do something about a stone for poor Constance’s grave.’‘I’m very glad to hear it! What is it to be like?’‘Something quite plain and dignified.He thought Cornish granite, with a suitable inscription.They spent their honeymoon in Cornwall, you know.’‘Stay for me there; I will not failTo meet thee in that hollow vale.And think not much of my delay;I am already on the way …’quoted Jane softly
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