humility, declared she should be such a nuisance. It was the
stranger that she should think so, as she had evidently served her
apprenticeship to parish work at Bishopsworthy; she knew exactly how
to talk to poor people, and was not only at home in clerical details
herself, but infused them into Lady Temple; so that, to the extreme
satisfaction of Mr. Touchett, the latter organized a treat for the
school-children, offered prizes for needlework, and once or twice
even came to listen to the singing practice when anything memorable
was going forward. She was much pleased at being helped to do what
she felt to be right and kind, though hitherto she had hardly known
how to set about it, and had been puzzled and perplexed by Rachel's
disapproval, and semi-contempt of "scratching the surface" by the
commonplace Sunday-school system.




CHAPTER XII



A CHANGE AT THE PARSONAGE.



"What could presumptuous hope inspire."--Rokeby.


There had been the usual foretaste of winter, rather sharp for
Avonmouth, and though a trifle to what it was in less sheltered