Subject: suitably reserved

From: "Cyril Eldridge" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:56:28 +0800

There was a hush like death in the crowded kirk. Where were the men whohad betrayed these wretched girls?
Her beauty was of the flesh, her graces were not those of theredeemed. NicholasHawkshaw, lame as he was, had gone back to the wars.
And, pray, sir, is it part of the duties of a gospel minister topursue fairies in the woods?
He waslooking for Paradise, but he could not find it.
But she islike a good dog and barks but does not bite, though the serving-maids walk in terror.
This uncouth thing had once been an altar.
But the voice of the preacher is heard only by open ears. David had rarely felt a more benignant mood.
Oaths were never heard, and if there was drunkenness itwas done in secret.
One-half of the births were outof lawful wedlock . Isobel chased the minister from his books. They shall be crowded, he said, like bricks in a fieryfurnace.
Proudfoot and thanked him for adiscourse so seasonable and inspired.
Almostshamefacedly he acknowledged an uplift of spirit.
Calidon is in Cauldshaw parish,and it was to Cauldshaw kirk we went.
Woman, he cried, what concern has a servant of God with theseheathen fables?
HereI am gay in any weather, for it is a kindly place. And, pray, sir, is it part of the duties of a gospel minister topursue fairies in the woods? But the sight of thewild wood in the Rood glen detained him. He stood and gazed, stuck silent by its beauty. David had rarely felt a more benignant mood.
Was she not a daughter of Heth, afair Moabitish woman, with no part in the commonwealth of Israel? What was betokened byso many infants born dead? Presently he had forgotten the route he had planned. But Jean, the goose-girl who taught it me, remembered just the oneverse.
But as springloosened the bonds word of the neighbourhoods doings was comingin. Theravine narrowed to a cleft where the stream fell in a white spoutinto a cauldron. And, pray, sir, is it part of the duties of a gospel minister topursue fairies in the woods?
That was the sermon he preached, and therewas silence among the doubters. Was she there in the stone tower, or among themeadows whose green showed in the turn of the glen?
Where were the men whohad betrayed these wretched girls?
He made his way north through hisenemies as if God had sent His angel to guide him. A young mans face, a girlseyes and voice, made folly of such easy formulas. CHAPTER VITHE BLACK WOOD BY NIGHTWord came of a great revival in the parish of Bold.
He is as good a Presbyterian as you, sir, she replied gently.