Framley Parsonage

, was Miss Dunstable, who seemed to take a great fancy to him, whereas she was not very accessible to the blandishments of Mr Supplehouse, nor more especiall

erby was one of those men who are always mixing up business with pleasure, and who have usually some scheme in their mind which requires forwarding. Men of thi

and tell him that this delay is inconvenient to me; he'll do anything for you, I know.' Mark said that he would write, and, indeed, he did so; but he did not at first like the tone of the conversation into which he was dragged. It was very painful to him to hear Lady Luft

im should have any other faith. They called him Viscount Papua and Baron Borneo; and his wife, who headed the joke against him, insisted on having her title. Miss Dunstable swore that she would wed none but a South Sea Islander; and to Mark was offered the income and duties of Bishop of Spices. Nor did the Proudie family set themselves aga

ntors of twenty-five or thirty years near them to keep them in order! The vicar of Framley might perhaps have been regarded as such a Mentor, were it not for that capability of adapting himself to the company immediately around him on which he so much piqued himself. He therefore also talked to my Lady Papua, and was jocose about the Baron - not altogether to the satisfaction of Mr Harold Smith himself

ing,' said Mark, as they were pr

rhaps the joke will be against you, when you are getting up in your pulpit

, Baron?' said Miss Dunstable. 'Mr Robarts's sermon will b

ld till it's done by the parsons,' said Harold Smith, '

o they were all very pleasant together, in spite of a little fencing with edge-tools, and at three o'clock the cortege o

last, Mr Sowerby and Harold Smith were the joint occupants of the phaeton. The poor lecturer, as he seated himself made some remark such as those he had been making for the last two days - for out of a full heart the mouth speaketh. But he spoke to an impatient listener. 'D- the South Sea Islanders,' said Mr Sowerby. 'You'll have it all your own way in a few moments, like a bull in a china-shop; but for Heaven's sake let us have a little peace till that time comes.' It appeared that Mr Sowerby's little plan of having Miss Dunstable for his companion was not quite insignificant; and, indeed, it may be said that but few of his little plans were so. At the present mom

an!' said Miss Dunstable. 'I did not thin

un deep,' said

it which that bad man caused me nearly broke my heart, and all the whi

n a voice which made the coachman in the next carr

ister-inlaw!' screa

not attempted next?'

ife then, you know,' sai

ust say,' said Miss Dunstable. 'You ought to

rts might not like it,

ch he tried on with the b

e and war, you know,'

had to deal with when he b

or him,' suggested Mrs Har

obliged to leave Barchester in utter disgrace. He h

d Miss Dunstabl

ean; but it's a

d to himself that Miss Dunstable was very good fun. We cannot linger over the bishop's dinner, though it was very good of its kind; and as Mr Sowerby contrived to sit next to Miss Dunstable, thereby overturning a little scheme made by Mr Supplehouse, he again shone forth in unclouded good humour. But Mr Harold Smith became impatient immediately on

that the world here for the last fortnight

'Come, my dear,' and she took hold of Miss Dunstable's arm, 'don't let us keep Barchester waitin

me for one glass of c

up from his chair as he heard the clock. 'If the people have come

t, Mr Smith, and we'll b

said Harold, filling his glass, and drink

; he may be impatient or not as he likes. His sense of justice teaches him so much, and in accordance with that sense he usually acts. So the people on the benches rose graciously when the palace party entered the room. Seats for them had been kept in the front. There were three arm-chairs, which were filled, after some little hesitation, by the bishop, Mrs Proudie, and Miss Dunstable - Mrs Smith positively declining to take one of them; though, as she admitted, her rank as Lady Papua of the islands did give her some claim. And this

d clergyman of the chapter, with whom Mrs Proudie shook hands very graciously, making way for him to seat himself close behind her if he would so please. But Mr Harding did not so please. Having paid his respects to the bishop he returned quietly to the side of his old friend Mr Thorne, thereby angering

n of those who did not stand so high in the social scale.' And then he paused for a moment, during which Mrs Smith remarked to Miss Dunstable that that was pretty well for a beginning; and Miss Dunstable replied, 'that as for herself she felt very grateful to rank, wealth and education.' Mr So

ing to be modest,'

new if he is,' r

made his entrance into public life by giving a lecture on the grammarians of the Latin language as exemplified at Eton School. 'On the present occasion,' Mr Smith continued, 'our object is to learn something as to those grand and magnificent islands which lie far away, beyond the Indies, in the Southern Ocean; the lands of which produce rich spices and glorious fruits, and whose seas are embedded with pearls and corals - Papua

d duly marked the path of the line through Borneo, Celebes, and Gilolo, through the Macassar Strait and the Molucca passage, Mr Harold Smith rose to a higher flight. 'But what,' said he, 'avails all that God can give to man, unless man will open his hand to receive the gift? And what is this opening of the hand but the process of civilization - yes, my friends, the process of civilization? These South Sea islanders have all that a kind Providence can bestow on them; but that all is as nothing without education. That education and that civilization it is for you to bestow upon them - yes, my frien

ifting his eyes and his hands t

a half,' said Mr Supplehouse, groaning. Harold Smith cast one

wels of the rocks render up their tribute. Forms which were dull and hideous become endowed with grace and beauty, and vegetable existence rises to the scale of celestial life. Then, too, Genius appears clad in a panoply of translucent armour, grasping in his hand the whole terrestrial surface, and making every rood of earth subservient to his purposes;- Genius, the child of Civilization, the mother of the Arts!' The last little bit, taken from the 'Pedigree of Progress', had a great success, and all Barchester went to work with its hands and f

ending from poetry to prose as a lecturer well knows how, and thereby show

bled people, and to the thorough wakening of the bishop, who, jumping up in his

Proudie's school of divinity in the city, and among the voices was distinctly

Harold Smith, upon whom the interruption

with which he had meant to convince the reason of his hearers, after he had taken full possession of their feelings. But they fell very dull and flat. And at the moment when he was interrupted, he was about to explain that that material progress to which he had alluded could not be attained without money; and that it behoved them, the people of Barchester before him, to come forward with their purses like men and brothers. He did also attempt this; but from the moment of that fatal on

antly, and, after what we have gone through, upon my word, we want it. You can tell one of the palace servants to let you in.' Mark considered the proposal wistfully. He would fain have joined the sup