On the first blush of the thing, Lady Lufton did not quite go along with him. Now that Lord Lufton was to marry the parson's sister, it might be well that the parson should be a dignitary of the Church; and it might be well, also, that one so nearly connected with her son should be comfortable in his money-matters. There loomed, also, in the future, some distant possibility of higher clerical honors for a peer's brother-in-law, and the top rung of the ladder is always more easily attained when a man has already ascended a step or two. But, nevertheless, when the matter came to be fully explained to her, when she saw clearly the circumstances under which the stall had been conferred, she did agree that it had better be given up.
And well for both of them it was—well for them all at Framley—that this conclusion had been reached before the scourge of Nemesis had fallen. Nemesis, of course, declared that her scourge had produced the resignation; but it was generally understood that this was a false boast, for all clerical men at Barchester knew that the stall had been restored to the chapter, or, in other words, into the hands of the government, before Tom Towers had twirled the fatal lash above his head. But the manner of the twirling was as follows:
"It is with difficulty enough," said the article in the Jupiter, "that the Church of England maintains at the present moment that ascendency among the religious sects of this country which it so loudly claims. And perhaps it is rather from an old-fashioned and time-honored affection for its standing than from any intrinsic merits of its own that some such general acknowledgment of its ascendency is still allowed to prevail. If, however, the patrons and clerical members of this Church are bold enough to disregard all general rules of decent behavior, we think we may predict that this chivalrous feeling will be found to give way. From time to time we hear of instances of such imprudence, and are made to wonder at the folly of those who are supposed to hold the State Church in the greatest reverence.
"Among those positions of dignified ease to which fortunate clergymen may be promoted are the stalls of the canons or prebendaries in our cathedrals. Some of these, as is well known, carry little or no emolument with them, but some are rich in the good things of this world. Excellent family houses are attached to them, with we hardly know what domestic privileges, and clerical incomes, moreover, of an amount which, if divided, would make glad the hearts of many a hard-working clerical slave. Reform has been busy even among these stalls, attaching some amount of work to the pay, and paring off some superfluous wealth from such of them as were over full; but reform has been lenient with them, acknowledging that it was well to have some such places of comfortable and dignified retirement for those who have worn themselves out in the
