There was excitement in the parish of Narrobourne one day.  The congregation had just come out from morning service, and the whole conversation was of the new curate, Mr. Halborough, who had officiated for the first time, in the absence of the rector.  
Never before had the feeling of the villagers approached a level which could be called excitement on such a matter as this.  The droning which had been the rule in that quiet old place for a century seemed ended at last.  They repeated the text to each other as a refrain: ‘O Lord, be thou my helper!’  Not within living memory till to-day had the subject of the sermon formed the topic of conversation from the church door to church-yard gate, to the of personal remarks on those who had been present, and on the week’s news in general.
 
The thrilling periods of the preacher hung about their minds all that day.  The parish being steeped in indifferentism, it happened that when the youths and , and old people, who had attended church that morning, as by a to what Halborough had said, they did so more or less , and even with the of a light laugh that was not real, so great was their shyness under the novelty of their sensations.
 
What was more curious than that these unconventional villagers should have been excited by a preacher of a new school after forty years of familiarity with the old hand who had had charge of their souls, was the effect of Halborough’s address upon the occupants of the manor-house pew, including the owner of the estate.  These thought they knew how to discount the sermon, how to minimize flash to its bare proportions; but they had yielded like the rest of the assembly to the charm of the newcomer.
 
Mr. Fellmer, the landowner, was a young , whose mother, still in the prime of life, had returned to her old position in the family since the death of her son’s wife in the year after her marriage, at the birth of a fragile little girl.  From the date of his loss to the present time, Fellmer had led an inactive existence in the of the parish; a lack of seemed to leave him listless.  He had gladly reinstated his mother in the gloomy house, and his main occupation now lay in stewarding his estate, which was not large.  Mrs. Fellmer, who had sat beside him under Halborough this morning, was a cheerful, woman, who did her and her alms-giving in person, was fond of old-fashioned flowers, and walked about the village on very wet days visiting the parishioners.  These, the only two great ones of Narrobourne, were impressed by Joshua’s as much as the cottagers.
 
Halborough had been introduced to them on his arrival some days before, and, their interest being , they waited a few moments till he came out of the vestry, to walk down the churchyard-path with him.  Mrs. Fellmer warmly of the sermon, of the good fortune of the parish in his , and hoped he had found comfortable quarters.
 
Halborough, faintly flushing, said that he had obtained very fair in the roomy house of a farmer, whom he named.
 
She feared he would find it very lonely, especially in the evenings, and hoped they would see a good deal of him.  When would he dine with them?  Could he not come that day—it must be so dull for him the first Sunday evening in country lodgings?
 
Halborough replied that it would give him much pleasure, but that he feared he must decline.  ‘I am not altogether alone,’ he said.  ‘My sister, who has just returned from Brussels, and who felt, as you do, that I should be rather by myself, has accompanied me hither to stay a few days till she has put my rooms in order and set me going.  She was too to come to church, and is waiting for me now at the farm.’
 
‘Oh, but bring your sister—that will be still better!  I shall be delighted to know her.  How I wish I had been aware!  Do tell her, please, that we had no idea of her presence.’
 
Halborough assured Mrs. Fellmer that he would certainly bear the message; but as to her coming he was not so sure.  The real truth was, however, that the matter would be by him, Rosa having an almost filial respect for his wishes.  But he was uncertain as to the state of her wardrobe, and had that she should not enter the manor-house at a disadvantage that evening, when there would probably be plenty of opportunities in the future of her doing so becomingly.
 
He walked to the farm in long strides.  This, then, was the outcome of his first morning’s work as curate here.  Things had gone fairly well with him.  He had been ; he was in a comfortable parish, wh............