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"FIFTY PER CENT. will be, I think, profit enough even on such a
transaction."
"I did not offer you the table," returned the broker. "I am not
bound to sell except I please, and at my own price."
"Possibly. But I tell you the whole affair is illegal. And if you
carry away that table, I shall see what the law will do for me. I
assure you I will prosecute you myself. You take up that money, or I
will. It will go to pay counsel, I give you my word, if you do not
take it to quench strife."
I stretched out my hand. But the broker was before me. Without
another word, he pocketed the money, jumped into his cart with his
man, and drove off, leaving the churchwarden and the parson standing
at the door of the dissenting minister with his mahogany table on
the path between them.
"Now, Mr Brownrigg," I said, "lend me a hand to carry this table in
again."
He yielded, not graciously,--that could not be expected,--but in
silence.
"Oh! sir," interposed young Tom, who had stood by during the
dispute, "let me take it. You're not able to lift it."
"Nonsense! Tom. Keep away," I said. "It is all the reparation I can
make."
And so Mr Brownrigg and I blundered into the little parlour with our
burden--not a great one, but I began to find myself failing.
Mr Templeton sat in a Windsor chair in the middle of the room.
Evidently the table had been carried away from before him, leaving
his position uncovered. The floor was strewed with the books which
had lain upon it. He sat reading an old folio, as if nothing had
happened. But when we entered he rose.
He was a man of middle size, about forty, with short black hair and
overhanging bushy eyebrows. His mouth indicated great firmness, not
unmingled with sweetness, and even with humour. He smiled as he
rose, but looked embarrassed, glancing first at the table, then at
me, and then at Mr Brownrigg, as if begging somebody to tell him
what to say. But I did not leave him a moment in this perplexity.
"Mr Templeton," I said, quitting the table, and holding out my hand,
"I beg your pardon for myself and my friend here, my
churchwarden"--Mr Brownrigg gave a grunt--"that you should have been
annoyed like this. I have--"
Mr Templeton interrupted me.
"I assure you it was a matter of conscience with me," he said. "On
no other ground--"
"I know it, I know it," I said, interrupting him in my turn. "I beg
your pardon; and I have done my best to make amends for it. Offences
must come, you know, Mr Templeton; but I trust I have not incurred
the woe that follows upon them by means of whom they come, for I
knew nothing of it, and indeed was too ill--"
Here my strength left me altogether, and I sat down. The room began
to whirl round me, and I remember nothing more till I knew that I
was lying on a couch, with Mrs Templeton bathing my forehead, and Mr
Templeton trying to get something into my mouth with a spoon.
Ashamed to find myself in such circumstances, I tried to rise; but
Mr Templeton, laying his hand on mine, said--
"My dear sir, add to your kindness this day, by letting my wife and
me minister to you."
Now, was not that a courteous speech? He went on--
"Mr Brownrigg has gone for Dr Duncan, and will be back in a few
moments. I beg you will not exert yourself."
I yielded and lay still. Dr Duncan came. His carriage followed, and
I was taken home. Before we started, I said to Mr Brownrigg--for I
could not rest till I had said it--
"Mr Brownrigg, I spoke in heat when I came up to you, and I am sure
I did you wrong. I am certain you had no improper motive in not
making me acquainted with your proceedings. You meant no harm to me.
But you did very wrong towards Mr Templeton. I will try to show you
that when I am well again; but--"
"But you mustn't talk more now," said Dr Duncan.
So I shook hands with Mr Brownrigg, and we parted. I fear, from what
I know of my churchwarden, that he went home with the conviction
that he had done perfectly right; and that the parson had made an
apology for interfering with a churchwarden who was doing his best
to uphold the dignity of Church and State. But perhaps I may be
doing him wrong again.
I went home to a week more of bed, and a lengthened process of
recovery, during which many were the kind inquiries made after me by
my friends, and amongst them by Mr Templeton.
And here I may as well sketch the result of that strange
introduction to the dissenting minister.
After I was tolerably well again, I received a friendly letter from
him one day, expostulating with me on the inconsistency of my
remaining within the pale of the ESTABLISHED CHURCH. The gist of the
letter lay in these words:--
"I confess it perplexes me to understand how to reconcile your
Christian and friendly behaviour to one whom most of your brethren
would consider as much beneath their notice as inferior to them in
social position, with your remaining the minister of a Church in
which such enormities as you employed your private influence to
counteract in my case, are not only possible, but certainly lawful,
and recognized by most of its members as likewise expedient."
To this I replied:--
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