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When the World Shook-Part3_H.Rider Haggard(1856-1925)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Church had claimed Bastin, so medicine claimed Bickley.

Now as it happened the man who succeeded my father as vicar of



Fulcombe was given a better living and went away shortly after I

had purchased the place and with it the advowson. Just at this



time also I received a letter written in the large, sprawling

hand of Bastin from whom I had not heard for years. It went



straight to the point, saying that he, Bastin, had seen in a

Church paper that the last incumbent had resigned the living of



Fulcombe which was in my gift. He would therefore be obliged if I

would give it to him as the place he was at in Yorkshire did not



suit his wife's health.

Here I may state that afterwards I learned that what did not



suit Mrs. Bastin was the organist, who was pretty. She was by

nature a woman with a temperament so insanely jealous that



actually she managed to be suspicious of Bastin, whom she had

captured in an unguarded moment when he was thinking of something



else and who would as soon have thought of even looking at any

woman as he would of worshipping Baal. As a matter of fact it



took him months to know one female from another. Except as

possible providers of subscriptions and props of Mothers'



Meetings, women had no interest for him.

To return--with that engaging honesty which I have mentioned--



Bastin's letter went on to set out all his own disabilities,

which, he added, would probably render him unsuitable for the



place he desired to fill. He was a High Churchman, a fact which

would certainly offend many; he had no claims to being a preacher



although he was extraordinarily well acquainted with the writings

of the Early Fathers. (What on earth had that to do with the



question, I wondered.) On the other hand he had generally been

considered a good visitor and was fond of walking (he meant to



call on distant parishioners, but did not say so).

Then followed a page and a half on the evils of the existing



system of the presentation to livings by private persons, ending

with the suggestion that I had probably committed a sin in buying



this particular advowson in order to increase my local authority,

that is, if I had bought it, a point on which he was ignorant.



Finally he informed me that as he had to christen a sick baby

five miles away on a certain moor and it was too wet for him to



ride his bicycle, he must stop. And he stopped.

There was, however, a P.S. to the letter, which ran as follows:



"Someone told me that you were dead a few years ago, and of

course it may be another man of the same name who owns Fulcombe.



If so, no doubt the Post Office will send back this letter."

That was his only allusion to my humble self in all those



diffuse pages. It was a long while since I had received an

epistle which made me laugh so much, and of course I gave him the



living by return of post, and even informed him that I would

increase its stipend to a sum which I considered suitable to the



position.

About ten days later I received another letter from Bastin



which, as a scrawl on the flap of the envelope informed me, he

had carried for a week in his pocket and forgotten to post.



Except by inference it returned no thanks for my intended

benefits. What it did say, however, was that he thought it wrong



of me to have settled a matter of such spiritual importance in so

great a hurry, though he had observed that rich men were nearly



always selfish where their time was concerned. Moreover, he

considered that I ought first to have made inquiries as to his



present character and attainments, etc., etc.

To this epistle I replied by telegraph to the effect that I



should as soon think of making inquiries about the character of

an archangel, or that of one of his High Church saints. This



telegram, he told me afterwards, he considered unseemly and even

ribald, especially as it had given great offence to the



postmaster, who was one of the sidesmen in his church.

Thus it came about that I appointed the Rev. Basil Bastin to






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