"
"Do you know," I returned, "I can't help saying something you
will not like to hear. It is a very fine church, no doubt,
but it always angers me to hear of a case like this where some
ancient church is pulled down and a grand new one raised in
its place to the honour and glory of some rich parvenu with or
without a brand new title."
"You are not hurting me in the least," he replied, with that
change which came from time to time in his eyes as if the
flame behind the screen had suddenly grown brighter. "I agree
with every word you say; the meanest church in the land should
be cherished as long as it will hold together. But
unfortunately ours had to come down. It was very old and
decayed past mending. The floor was six feet below the level
of the surrounding ground and frightfully damp. It had been
examined over and over again by experts during the past forty
or fifty years, and from the first they pronounced it a
hopeless case, so that it was never restored. The interior,
right down to the time of demolition, was like that of most
country churches of a century ago, with the old black worm-
eaten pews, in which the worshippers shut themselves up as if
in their own houses or castles. On account of the damp we
were haunted by toads. You smile, sir, but it was no smiling
matter for me during my first year as vicar, when I discovered
that it was the custom here to keep pet toads in the church.
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