Page 40 - of-human-bondage-

very young for this, and her heart went out to the motherless
child; but her attempts to gain his affection were awkward,
and the boy, feeling shy, received her demonstrations with
so much sullenness that she was mortified. Sometimes she
heard his shrill voice raised in laughter in the kitchen, but
when she went in, he grew suddenly silent, and he flushed
darkly when Mary Ann explained the joke. Mrs. Carey
could not see anything amusing in what she heard, and she
smiled with constraint.
‘He seems happier with Mary Ann than with us, Wil-
liam,’ she said, when she returned to her sewing.
‘One can see he’s been very badly brought up. He wants
licking into shape.’
On the second Sunday after Philip arrived an unlucky
incident occurred. Mr. Carey had retired as usual after din-
ner for a little snooze in the drawing-room, but he was in
an irritable mood and could not sleep. Josiah Graves that
morning had objected strongly to some candlesticks with
which the Vicar had adorned the altar. He had bought them
second-hand in Tercanbury, and he thought they looked
very well. But Josiah Graves said they were popish. This was
a taunt that always aroused the Vicar. He had been at Ox-
ford during the movement which ended in the secession
from the Established Church of Edward Manning, and he
felt a certain sympathy for the Church of Rome. He would
willingly have made the service more ornate than had been
usual in the low-church parish of Blackstable, and in his
secret soul he yearned for processions and lighted candles.
He drew the line at incense. He hated the word protestant.