--Ah! how d'ye do, Betty?" in a tone of relief; "you've not
seen my wife."
This was the first of a long series of introductions. Compton
Poynsett was a straggling village, with the church, schools, and
Rectory, ten minutes' walk from the park gates. It had not been
neglected, so that Julius had not the doubtful satisfaction of
coming like a missionary or reformer. The church, though not
exactly as with his present lights he would have made it, was in
respectable order, and contained hardly anything obnoxious to his
taste; the schools were well built, properly officered, and the
children under such discipline that Rosamond declared she could no
more meddle with them than with her father's regiment.
The Rectory was at that moment level with the ground, and Julius
explaining the plans, when up came the senior curate. Mr. Bindon,
whom she, as well as Julius, greeted as an old friend, was the
typical modern priest, full of his work, and caring for nothing
besides, except a Swiss mountain once a year; a slight, spare,
small, sallow man, but with an enormous power of untiring energy.
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