The servant who answered the door said that Miss Clarke had gone out skating with Mr. Baird, but that the vicar was in his study. Clarice would have turned away in pursuit of the young people, but that the parson heard her voice and came into the hall. He was an undersized, miserable man, with a head too large for his body, and an awkward, diffident manner, which seemed to continually apologise for the existence of Mr. Nehemiah Clarke. His voice was querulous, and his complaints were incessant. In his rusty black clothes, with his bent frame and untidy hair, he looked a most dismal object, and Clarice, in her then somewhat dejected state of mind, scarcely relished an interview with so cheerless a person. However, she could not help herself, and entered the study with the best grace she could muster.
"There," whimpered Mr. Clarke, waving his hands towards an array of bills, which strewed his desk like autumn leaves, "what do you think of that for Christmas, Clarice? How is a man to preach goodwill towards men, when men won't show any goodwill towards him?"
"But we all get bills at Christmas time," said Miss Baird, consolingly. "I get more than anyone else," moaned the vicar, sinking into the chair before his desk; "why they should come to me, I don't know."
"I haven't any ready money, Clarice. It's all very well for you, in the lap of luxury; but I have only three hundred a year, and even that small sum comes to me slowly, since people will not pay their tithes without legal threats, and those cost money. I don't eat much, I dress plainly, I never enjoy myself, and keep only one cheap servant, yet the bills will come in. Prudence is responsible for many; she ought to emulate her name, but she won't. Imprudence would suit her better. Oh, dear me, how I can sympathise with Lear."
"I don't think Prudence is extravagant, Mr. Clarke," said Clarice, who resented this placing of burdens on other people's shoulders, "she always seems to me to be a sensible girl."
"In some ways--in some ways," muttered the vicar, discontentedly.
Clarice reflected for a few minutes. From hints dropped by Prudence, she had a shrewd idea of where the vicar's money went. "How is Frank, Mr. Clarke?" she asked, significantly.