“How do you do, Mr. Lashmar!”

“Why—­Miss Bride!” exclaimed the vicar.  “What a long time since we saw you!  Have you just come?”

“I’m on a little holiday.  How are you?  And how is Mrs. Lashmar?”

Miss Bride had a soberly decisive way of speaking, and an aspect which corresponded therewith; her figure was rather short, well-balanced, apt for brisk movement; she held her head very straight, and regarded the world with a pair of dark eyes suggestive of anything but a sentimental nature.  Her grey dress, black jacket, and felt hat trimmed with a little brown ribbon declared the practical woman, who thinks about her costume only just as much as is needful; her dark-brown hair was coiled in a plait just above the nape, as if neatly and definitely put out of the way.  She looked neither more nor less than her age, which was eight and twenty.  At first sight her features struck one as hard and unsympathetic, though tolerably regular; watching her as she talked or listened, one became aware of a mobility which gave large expressiveness, especially in the region of the eyebrows, which seemed to move with her every thought.  Her lips were long, and ordinarily compressed in the line of conscious self-control.  She had a very shapely neck, the skin white and delicate; her facial complexion was admirably pure and of warmish tint.

“And where are you living, Miss Bride?” asked Mr. Lashmar, regarding her with curiosity.

“At Hollingford; that is to say, near it.  I am secretary to Lady Ogram—­I don’t know whether you ever heard of her?”

“Ogram?  I know the name.  I am very glad indeed to hear that you have such a pleasant position.  And your father?  It is very long since I heard from him.”

“He has a curacy at Liverpool, and seems to be all right.  My mother died about two years ago.”

The matter-of-fact tone in which this information was imparted caused Mr. Lashmar to glance at the speaker’s face.  Though very little of an observer, he was comforted by an assurance that Miss Bride’s features were less impassive than her words.  Indeed, the cold abruptness with which she spoke was sufficient proof of feeling roughly subdued.

Some six years had now elapsed since the girl’s father, after acting for a short time as curate to Mr. Lashmar, accepted a living in another county.  The technical term, in this case, was rich in satiric meaning; Mr. Bride’s incumbency quickly reduced him to pauperism.  At the end of the first twelvemonth in his rural benefice the unfortunate cleric made a calculation that he was legally responsible for rather more than twice the sum of money represented by his stipend and the offertories.  The church needed a new roof; the parsonage was barely habitable for long lack of repairs; the church school lost its teacher through default of salary—­and so on.  With endless difficulty Mr. Bride escaped from his vicarage to freedom and semi-starvation, and deemed himself very lucky indeed when at length he regained levitical harbourage.