Salem Chapel. Volume 2/2

“You women are incomprehensible,” said the young man, with an irritation he could not subdue – “what does it matter about the lamp? but if the world were going to pieces you must still be intent upon such trifles – leave that to the people of the house.”

“But, my dear, the people of the house don’t understand it,” said Mrs. Vincent. “Oh Arthur, it is often the trifles that are the most important. I have had Mrs. Tozer calling upon me to-day, and Mrs. Tufton. I don’t wonder, dear, if you find them a little tiresome; but that is what every pastor has to expect. I daresay you have been worried to-day paying so many visits. Hush, there is some one coming up-stairs. It is Mr. Tozer, Arthur. I can hear his voice.”

Upon which the minister, conscious of not being prepared for Tozer’s questions, gave vent to an impatient ejaculation. “Never a moment’s respite! And now I shall have to give an account of myself,” said the unfortunate Nonconformist. Mrs. Vincent, who had just then finished her operations with the lamp, looked up reproachfully over the light at her son.

“Oh Arthur, consider how kind he has been! Your dear father would never have used such an expression – but you have my quick temper,” said the widow, with a little sigh. She shook hands very cordially with the good butterman when he made his appearance. “I was just going to make tea for my son,” said Mrs. Vincent. “I have scarcely been able to sit with him at all since Susan took ill. Arthur, ring the bell – it is so kind of you to come; you will take a cup of tea with us while my son and you talk matters over – that is, if you don’t object to my presence?” said the minister’s mother with a smile. “Your dear papa always liked me to be with him, Arthur; and until he has a wife, Mr. Tozer, I daresay his mother will not be much in the way when it is so kind a friend as you he has to talk over his business with. Bring tea directly, please. I fear you have forgotten what I said to you about the lamp, which burns quite nicely when you take a little pains. Arthur, will you open the window to clear the atmosphere of that smoke? and perhaps Mr. Tozer will take a seat nearer the fire.”

“I am obliged to you, ma’am,” said the butterman, who had a cloud on his face. “Not no nearer, thank you all the same. If I hadn’t thought you’d have done tea, I shouldn’t have come troubling Mr. Vincent, not so soon;” and Tozer turned a doubtful glance towards the minister, who stood longer at the window than he need have done. The widow’s experienced eye saw that some irritation had risen between her son and his friend and patron. Tozer was suspicious, and ready to take offence – Arthur, alas! in an excited and restless mood, only too ready to give it. His mother could read in his shoulders, as he stood at the window with his back to her, that impulse to throw off the yoke and resent the inquisition to which he was subject, which, all conscious as he was of not having carried out Tozer’s injunctions, seized upon the unfortunate Nonconformist. With a little tremulous rush, Mrs. Vincent put herself in the breach.

“I am sure so warm a friend as Mr. Tozer can never trouble any of my family at any time,” said the widow, with a little effusion. “I know too well how rare a thing real kindness is – and I am very glad you have come just now while I can be here,” she added, with a sensation of thankfulness perhaps not so complimentary to Tozer as it looked on the surface. “Arthur, dear, I think that will do now. You may put up the window and come back to your chair. You don’t smell the lamp, Mr. Tozer? and here is the little maid with the tea.”

Mrs. Vincent moved about the tray almost in a bustle when the girl had placed it on the table. She re-arranged all the cups and moved everything on the table, while her son took up a gloomy position behind her on the hearthrug, and Tozer preserved an aspect of ominous civility on the other side of the table. She was glad that the little maid had to return two or three times with various forgotten adjuncts, though even then Mrs. Vincent’s instincts of good management prompted her to point out to the handmaiden the disadvantages of her thoughtlessness. “If you had but taken time to think what would be wanted, you would have saved yourself a great deal of trouble,” said the minister’s mother, with a tremble of expectation thrilling her frame, looking wistfully round to see whether anything more was wanted, or if, perhaps, another minute might be gained before the storm broke. She gave Arthur a look of entreaty as she called him forward to take his place at table. She knew that real kindness was not very often to be met with in this cross-grained world; and if people are conscious of having been kind, it is only natural they should expect gratitude! Such was the sentiment in her eyes as she turned round and fixed them upon her son. “Tea is ready, Arthur,” said the widow, in a tone of secret supplication. And Arthur understood his mother, and was less and less inclined to conciliate as he came forward out of the darkness, where he might look sulky if he pleased, and sat down full in the light of the lamp, which smoked no longer. They were not a comfortable party. Mrs. Vincent felt it so necessary that she should talk and keep them separated, that she lost her usual self-command, and subjects failed her in her utmost need.

“Let me give you another cup of tea,” she said, as the butterman paused in the supernumerary meal which that excellent man was making; “I am so glad you happened to come this evening when I am taking a little leisure. I hope the congregation will not think me indifferent, Mr. Tozer. I am sure you and Mrs. Tozer will kindly explain to them how much I have been occupied. When Susan is well, I hope to make acquaintance with all my son’s people. Arthur, my dear boy, you are over-tired, you don’t eat anything – and you made a very poor dinner. I wish you would advise him to take a little rest, Mr. Tozer. He minds his mother in most things, but not in this. It is vain for me to say anything to him about giving up work; but perhaps a little advice from you would have more effect. I spoke to Dr. Rider on the subject, and he says a little rest is all my son requires; but rest is exactly what he will never take. It was just the same with his dear father – and you are not strong enough, Arthur, to bear so much.”

“I daresay as you’re right, ma’am,” said Tozer; “if he was to take a little more exercise and walking about – most of us Salem folks wouldn’t mind a little less on Sundays, to have more of the minister at other times. I hope as there wasn’t no unpleasantness, Mr. Vincent, between you and Pigeon when you see him to-day?”

“I did not see him; – I mean I am sorry I was not able to call on Pigeon to-day,” said Vincent, hastily; “I was unexpectedly detained,” he added, growing rather red, and looking Tozer in the face. “Indeed, I am not sure that I ought to call on Pigeon,” continued the minister, after a pause; “I have done nothing to offend him. If he chooses to take an affront which was never intended, I can’t help it. Why should I go and court every man who is sulky or ill-tempered in the congregation? Look here, Tozer – you are a sensible man – you have been very kind, as my mother says. I set out to-day intending to go and see this man for your sake; but you know very well this is not what I came to Carlingford for. If I had known the sort of thing that was required of me!” cried Vincent, rising up and resuming his place on the hearthrug – “to go with my hat in my hand, and beg this one and the other to forgive me, and receive me into favour: – why, what have I ever done to Pigeon? if he has anything to find fault with, he had much better come to me, and have it out.”

“Mr. Vincent, sir,” said Tozer solemnly, pushing away his empty teacup, and leaning forward over the table on his folded arms, “them ain’t the sentiments for a pastor in our connection. That’s a style of thing as may do among fine folks, or in the church where there’s no freedom; but them as chooses their own pastor, and pays their own pastor, and don’t spare no pains to make him comfortable, has a right to expect different. Them ain’t the sentiments, sir, for Salem folks. I don’t say if they’re wrong or right – I don’t make myself a judge of no man; but I’ve seen a deal of our connection and human nature in general, and this I know, that a minister as has to please his flock, has got to please his flock whatever happens, and neither me nor no other man can make it different; and that Mrs. Vincent, as has seen life, can tell you as well as I can. Pigeon ain’t neither here nor there. It’s the flock as has to be considered – and it ain’t preaching alone as will do that; and that your good mother, sir, as knows the world, will tell you as well as me.”

“But Arthur is well aware of it,” said the alarmed mother, interposing hastily, conscious that to be thus appealed to was the greatest danger which could threaten her. “His dear father always told him so; yet, after all, Mr. Vincent used to say,” added the anxious diplomatist, “that nothing was to be depended on in the end but the pulpit. I have heard him talking of it with the leading people in the connection, Mr. Tozer. They all used to say that, though visiting was very good, and a pastor’s duty, it was the pulpit, after all, that was to be most trusted to; and I have always seen in my experience – I don’t know if the same has occurred to you – that both gifts are very rarely to be met with. Of course, we should all strive after perfection,” continued the minister’s mother, with a tremulous smile – “but it is so seldom met with that any one has both gifts! Arthur, my dear boy, I wish you would eat something; and Mr. Tozer, let me give you another cup of tea.”

“No more for me, ma’am, thankye,” said Tozer, laying his hand over his cup. “I don’t deny as there’s truth in what you say. I don’t deny as a family here and there in a flock may be aggravating like them Pigeons, I’m not the man to be hard on a minister, if that ain’t his turn. A pastor may have a weakness, and not feel himself as equal to one part of his work as to another; but to go for to say as visiting and keeping the flock pleased, ain’t his duty – it’s that, ma’am, as goes to my heart.”

Tozer’s pathos touched a lighter chord in the bosom of the minister. He came back to his seat with a passing sense of amusement. “If Pigeon has anything to find fault with, let him come and have it out,” said Vincent, bringing, as his mother instantly perceived, a less clouded countenance into the light of the lamp. “You, who are a much better judge than Pigeon, were not displeased on Sunday,” added the minister, not without a certain complacency. Looking back upon the performances of that day, the young Nonconformist himself was not displeased. He knew now – though he was unconscious at the time – that he had made a great appearance in the pulpit of Salem, and that once more the eyes of Carlingford, unused to oratory, and still more unused to great and passionate emotion, were turned upon him.

“Well, sir, if it come to be a question of that,” said the mollified deacon; “but no – it ain’t that – I can’t, whatever my feelings is, be forgetful of my dooty!” cried Tozer, in sudden excitement. “It ain’t that, Mr. Vincent; it’s for your good I’m a-speaking up and letting you know my mind. It ain’t the pulpit, sir. I’ll not say as I ever had a word to say against your sermons: but when the minister goes out of my house, a-saying as he’s going to visit the flock, and when he’s to be seen the next moment, Mrs. Vincent, not going to the flock, but a-spending his precious time in Grange Lane with them as don’t know nothing, and don’t care nothing for Salem, nor understand the ways of folks like us – ”

Here Tozer was interrupted suddenly by the minister, who once more rose from his chair with an angry exclamation. What he might have said in the hasty impulse of the moment nobody could tell; but Mrs. Vincent, hastily stumbling up on her part from her chair, burst in with a tremulous voice —

“Arthur, my dear boy! did you hear Susan call me? – hark! I fancied I heard her voice. Oh, Arthur dear, go and see, I am too weak to run myself. Say I am coming directly – hark! do you think it is Susan? Oh, Arthur, go and see!”

Startled by her earnestness, though declaring he heard nothing, the young man hastened away. Mrs. Vincent seized her opportunity without loss of time.

“Mr. Tozer,” said the widow, “I am just going to my sick child. Arthur and you will be able to talk of your business more freely when I am gone, and I hope you will be guided to give him good advice; what I am afraid of is, that he will throw it all up,” continued Mrs. Vincent, leaning her hand upon the table, and bending forward confidential and solemn to the startled butterman, “as so many talented young men in our connection do nowadays. Young men are so difficult to deal with; they will not put up with things that we know must be put up with,” said the minister’s mother, shaking her head with a sigh. “That is how we are losing all our young preachers; – an accomplished young man has so many ways of getting on now. Oh, Mr. Tozer, I rely upon you to give my son good advice – if he is aggravated, it is my terror that he will throw it all up! Good-night. You have been our kind friend, and I have such trust in you!” Saying which the widow shook hands with him earnestly and went away, leaving the worthy deacon much shaken, and with a weight of responsibility upon him. Vincent met her at the door, assuring her that Susan had not called; but with a heroism which nobody suspected – trembling with anxiety, yet conscious of having struck a master-stroke – his mother glided away to the stillness of the sick-room, where she sat questioning her own wisdom all the evening after, and wondering whether, after all, at such a crisis, she had done right to come away.

When the minister and the deacon were left alone together, instead of returning with zest to their interrupted discussion, neither of them said anything for some minutes. Once more Vincent took up his position on the hearthrug, and Tozer gazed ruefully at the empty cup which he still covered with his hand, full of troubled thoughts. The responsibility was almost too much for Tozer. He could scarcely realise to himself what terrors lay involved in that threatened danger, or what might happen if the minister threw it all up! He held his breath at the awful thought. The widow’s Parthian arrow had gone straight to the butterman’s heart.

“I hope, sir, as you won’t think there’s anything but an anxious feelin’ in the flock to do you justice as our pastor,” said Tozer, with a certain solemnity, “or that we ain’t sensible of our blessin’s. I’ve said both to yourself and others, as you was a young man of great promise, and as good a preacher as I ever see in our connection, Mr. Vincent, and I’ll stand by what I’ve said; but you ain’t above taking a friend’s advice – not speaking with no authority,” added the good butterman, in a conciliatory tone; “it’s all along of the women, sir – it’s them as is at the bottom of all the mischief in a flock. It ain’t Pigeon, bless you, as is to blame. And even my missis, though she’s not to say unreasonable as women go – none of them can abide to hear of you a-going after Lady Western – that’s it, Mr. Vincent. She’s a lovely creature,” cried Tozer, with enthusiasm; “there ain’t one in Carlingford to compare with her, as I can see, and I wouldn’t be the one to blame a young man as was carried away. But there couldn’t no good come of it, and Salem folks is touchy and jealous,” continued the worthy deacon; “that was all as I meant to say.”

Thus the conference ended amicably after a little more talk, in which Pigeon and the other malcontents were made a sacrifice of and given up by the anxious butterman, upon whom Mrs. Vincent’s parting words had made so deep an impression. Tozer went home thereafter to overawe his angry wife, whom Vincent’s visit to Lady Western had utterly exasperated, with the dread responsibility now laid upon them. “What if he was to throw it all up!” said Tozer. That alarming possibility struck silence and dismay to the very heart of the household. Perhaps it was the dawn of a new era of affairs in Salem. The deacon’s very sleep was disturbed by recollections of the promising young men who, now he came to think of it, had been lost to the connection, as Mrs. Vincent suggested, and had thrown it all up. The fate of the chapel, and all the new sittings let under the ministry of the young Nonconformist, seemed to hang on Tozer’s hands. He thought of the weekly crowd, and his heart stirred. Not many deacons in the connection could boast of being crowded out of their own pews Sunday after Sunday by the influx of unexpected hearers. The enlightenment of Carlingford, as well as the filling of the chapel, was at stake. Clearly, in the history of Salem, a new era had begun.