Mr. Devereux had been Rector of Beechcroft about a year and a half, and had hitherto been much liked.  His parishioners had known him from a boy, and were interested about him, and though very young, there was something about him that gained their respect.  Almost all his plans were going on well, and things were, on the whole, in a satisfactory state, though no one but Lilias expected even Cousin Robert to make a Dreamland of Beechcroft, and there were days when he looked worn and anxious, and the girls suspected that some one was behaving ill.

‘Have you a headache, Robert?’ asked Emily, a few evenings before Whit-Sunday, ‘you have not spoken three words this evening.’

‘Not at all, thank you,’ said Mr. Devereux, smiling, ’you need not think to make me your victim, now you have no Claude to nurse.’

‘Then if it is not bodily, it is mental,’ said Lily.

‘I am in a difficulty about the christening of Mrs. Naylor’s child.’

‘Naylor the blacksmith?’ said Jane.  ’I thought it was high time for it to be christened.  It must be six weeks old.’

‘Is it not to be on Whit-Sunday?’ said Lily, disconsolately.

’Oh no!  Mrs. Naylor will not hear of bringing the child on a Sunday, and I could hardly make her think it possible to bring it on Whit-Tuesday.’

‘Why did you not insist?’ said Lily.

’Perhaps I might, if there was no other holy day at hand, or if there was not another difficulty, a point on which I cannot give way.’

‘Oh! the godfathers and godmothers,’ said Lily, ’does she want that charming brother of hers, Edward Gage?’

’Yes, and what is worse, Edward Gage’s dissenting wife, and Dick Rodd, who shows less sense of religion than any one in the parish, and has never been confirmed.’

‘Could you make them hear reason?’

‘They were inclined to be rather impertinent,’ said Mr. Devereux.  ‘Old Mrs. Gage—­’

‘Oh!’ interrupted Jane, ’there is no hope for you if the sour Gage is in the pie.’

’The sour Gage told me people were not so particular in her younger days, and perhaps they should not have the child christened at all, since I was such a contrary gentleman.  Tom Naylor was not at home, I am to see him to-morrow.’

‘Well, I do not think Tom Naylor is as bad as the rest,’ said Lily; ’he would have been tolerable, if he had married any one but Martha Gage.’

’Yes, he is an open good-natured fellow, and I have hopes of making an impression on him.’

‘If not,’ said Lily, ‘I hope papa will take away his custom.’

‘What?’ said Mr. Mohun, who always heard any mention of himself.  Mr. Devereux repeated his history, and discussed the matter with his uncle, only once interrupted by an inquiry from Jane about the child’s name, a point on which she could gain no intelligence.  His report the next day was not decidedly unfavourable, though he scarcely hoped the christening would be so soon as Tuesday.  He had not seen the father, and suspected he had purposely kept out of the way.