The Wildfire Club - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive

OR THE HA.UNTED :MA.N. 125
acceleration of that visible and rapid decay of physical
strength of which we have before spoken. At length it
happened that Mr. H. was solicited to visit a very distant
part of the north of England, which it was supposed was
his birthplace, but which he had never returned to since
the period when he had left it, converted from a poor curate
into a rich man. Mr. H. manifested an unusual reluctance
to visit this place, and it was only at the earnest
entreaty of a gentleman who had bestowed much medical
skill and kindness upon him during a long fit of sickness,
that he could be induced to comply with the requisition
of the parishioners of Y--, to do duty for their rector
during his temporary absence.
On arriving at the church where he was to officiate, his
restlessness and uncertainty of manner became more than
usually apparent. His furtive glances were perpetually
directed towards an empty space directly in front of the
pulpit, and the distress whi.ch he evidenced in glancing in
that quarter was so marked that at last the congregation
began to look as eagerly into the vacancy as himself. On
passing the spot, too, to the surprise of all, he suddenly
stopped, as if some one had addressed him, bent his head
slightly, as if in acknowledgment of a communication, and,
with an ashy paleness on his face, proceeded to the vestry
room to change his robes. As he returned again to the
altar, his unaccountable conduct, combined with the singular
rumors which prevailed about him, broke through all
the conventional forms which hedge in such a scene with
a wall of strict etiquette, and the whole congregation
simultaneously rose to observe his movements. Without
paying the least attention to the rustle around him, he
proceeded up the aisle with the same downcast look which
ever marked his way, until he arrived at the vacant space,
11*