Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 3).pdf/106

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

my former years! But I can tell you the means by which my conversion was brought about, and I hope you will be interested enough in me to listen. Have you ever heard the name of the parson of Emminster—you must have done so?—old Mr. Clare; one of the most earnest of his school; one of the few intense men left in the Church; not so intense as the extreme wing of Christian believers to which I belong, but quite an exception among the Established clergy, the younger of whom are gradually attenuating the true doctrines by their sophistries, till they are but the shadow of what they were. I only differ from him on the question of Church and State—the interpretation of the text, "Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord"—that's all. He is one who, I firmly believe, has been the humble means of saving more souls in this country than any other man you can name. You have heard of him?'

'I have,' she said.

'He came to Trantridge two or three years ago to preach on behalf of some missionary society; and I, wretched man that I was, insulted him when, in his disinterestedness, he tried to