Mr. Quickenham arrived an hour or two before dinner, and was immediately taken out to see the obnoxious building; while Mrs. Fenwick, who never would go to see it, described all its horrors to her sister within the guarded precincts of her own drawing-room.
“It used to be a bit of common land, didn’t it?” said Mr. Quickenham.
“I hardly know what is common land,” replied the Vicar. “The children used to play here, and when there was a bit of grass on it some of the neighbours’ cows would get it.”
“It was never advertised—to be let on building lease?”
“Oh dear no! Lord Trowbridge never did anything of that sort.”
“I dare say not,” said the lawyer. “I dare say not.” Then he walked round the plot of ground, pacing it, as though something might be learned in that way. Then he looked up at the building with his hands in his pockets, and his head on one side. “Has there been a deed of gift—perhaps a peppercorn rent, or something of that kind?” The Vicar declared that he was altogether ignorant of what had been done between the agent for the Marquis and the trustees to whom had been committed the building of the chapel. “I dare say nothing,” said Mr. Quickenham. “They’ve been in such a hurry to punish you, that they’ve gone on a mere verbal permission. What’s the extent of the glebe?”
“They call it forty-two acres.”
“Did you ever have it measured?”
“Never. It would make no difference to me whether it is forty-one or forty-three.”
“That’s as may be,” said the lawyer. “It’s as nasty a thing as I’ve looked at for many a day, but it wouldn’t do to call it a nuisance.”
“Of course not. Janet is very hot about it; but, as for me, I’ve made up my mind to swallow it. After all, what harm will it do me?”
“It’s an insult—that’s all.”
“But if I can show that I don’t take it as an insult, the insult will be nothing. Of course the people know that their landlord is trying to spite me.”
“That’s just it.”
“And for awhile they’ll spite me too, because he does. Of course it’s a bore. It cripples one’s influence, and to a certain degree spreads dissent at the cost of the Church. Men and women will go to that place merely because Lord Trowbridge favours the building. I know all that, and it irks me; but still it will be better to swallow it.”
“Who’s the oldest man in the parish?” asked Mr. Quickenham; “the oldest with his senses still about him.” The parson reflected for awhile, and then said that he thought Brattle, the miller, was as old a man as there was there, with the capability left to him of remembering and of stating what he remembered. “And what’s his age—about?” Fenwick said that the miller was between sixty and seventy, and had lived in Bullhampton all his life. “A churchgoing man?” asked the lawyer. To this the Vicar was obliged to reply that, to his very great regret, old Brattle never entered a church. “Then I’ll step over and see him during morning service tomorrow,” said the lawyer. The Vicar raised his eyebrows, but said nothing as to the propriety of Mr. Quickenham’s personal attendance at a place of worship on Good Friday.
“Can anything be done, Richard?” said Mrs. Fenwick, appealing to her brother-in-law.
“Yes;—undoubtedly something can be done.”
“Can there, indeed? I am so glad. What can be done?”
“You can make the best of it.”
“That’s just what I’m determined I won’t do. It’s mean-spirited, and so I tell Frank. I never would have hurt them as long as they treated us well; but now they are enemies, and as enemies I will regard them. I should think myself disgraced if I were to sit down in the presence of the Marquis of Trowbridge; I should, indeed.”
“You can easily manage that by standing up when you meet him,” said Mr. Quickenham. Mr. Quickenham could be very funny at times, but those who knew him would remark that whenever he was funny he had something to hide. His wife as she heard his wit was quite sure that he had some plan in his head about the chapel.
At half-past six there came Mr. Chamberlaine and his nephew. The conversation about the chapel was still continued, and the canon from Salisbury was very eloquent, and learned also, upon the subject. His eloquence was brightest while the ladies were still in the room, but his learning was brought forth most manifestly after they had retired. He was very clear in his opinion that the Marquis had the law on his side in giving the land for the purpose in question, even if it could be shown that he was simply the lord of the manor, and not so possessed of the spot as to do what he liked in it for his own purposes. Mr. Chamberlaine expressed his opinion that, although he himself might think otherwise, it would be held to be for the benefit of the community that the chapel should be built, and in no court could an injunction against the building be obtained.
“But he couldn’t give leave to have it put on another man’s ground,” said the Queen’s Counsel.
“There is no question of another man’s ground here,” said the member of the Chapter.
“I’m not so sure of that,” continued Mr. Quickenham. “It may not be the ground of anyone man, but if it’s the ground of any ten or twenty it’s the same thing.”
“But then there would be a lawsuit,” said the Vicar.
“It might come to that,” said
