WYLDER'S BAWD.
169
ful letters, the promptitude and energy of this latter per-
sonage were such as to produce a sense of immediate dan-
ger so acute that the sacred Vicar opened his dismal case
to his brother Mark.
Mark, sorely against the grain, and with no good grace,
at last consented to advance in this dread emergen-
cy, and the Vicar blessed his benefactor, and in his closet
on his knees. shed tears of thankfulness over his deliver-
ance, and the sky opened and the flowers looked bright,
and life grew pleasant once more.
But the 300/. were not yet in his pocket, and Mark had
gone away - and although of course the loan was sure to
come, the delay — any delay in his situation — was criti-
cal and formidable. Still he would not believe it possible
that he could forget his promise, or shut up his bowels of
mercy, or long delay the remittance which he knew to be
bo urgently needed.
In the meantime, however, a writ reached the hand of
the poor Vicar of Naunton Friars, who wrote in eager
and confused terror to a friend in the Middle Temple on
the dread summons, and learned that he was now "in
court," and must "appear," or suffer judgment by de-
fault.
The end was that he purchased a respite of three
months, by adding thirty pounds to his debt, and so was
thankful for another deliverance, and was confident of the
promised subsidy within a week, or at all events a fort-
night, or at worst — three months was a long reprieve —
and the subsidy must arrive before the emergency.
When the "service" was over, the neighborly little
congregation, with a sprinkling of visitors to Gylingden,
for sake of its healing waters, broke up, and loitered in
the vicinity of the porch, to remark on the sermon or the
weather, and ask one another how they did, and to see the
s