course I'm quite sure Mr. Elphick does wonders, and the ladies of the
choir are excellent--er--gifted ... I'm quite sure. But the
harmonium--it's very old and quite a lot of the notes won't play ... and
the bellows ... Mr. Saunders came from Lydd and had a look at it, but he
says it's past repair--er--satisfactory repair, and it ud really save
money in the long run if we bought a new one."

Joanna was a little shocked. She had listened to the grunts and wheezes
of the harmonium from her childhood, and the idea of a new one disturbed
her--it suggested sacrilege and ritualism and the moving of landmarks.

"I like what we've got very well," she said truculently--"It's done for
us properly this thirty year."

"That's just it," said the Rector, "it's done so well that I think we
ought to let it retire from business, and appoint something younger in
its place ... he! he!" He looked at her nervously to see if she had
appreciated the joke, but Joanna's humour was not of that order.

"I don't like the idea," she said.

Mr. Pratt miserably clasped and unclasped his hands. He felt that one
day he would be crushed between his parishioners' hatred of change and
his fellow-priests' insistence on it--rumour said that the Squire's
elder son, Father Lawrence, was coming home before long, and the poor
little rector quailed to think of what he would say of the harmonium if
it was still in its place.

"I--er--Miss Godden--I feel our reputation is at stake. Visitors, you
know, come to our little church, and are surprised to find us so far