



Produced by M. Jeanne Peterson, Suzanne Shell and the
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MOTH AND RUST




  BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

    RED POTTAGE.
    DIANA TEMPEST.
    SIR CHARLES DANVERS.
    A DEVOTEE.
    THE DANVERS' JEWELS.




  MOTH AND RUST

  TOGETHER WITH GEOFFREY'S
  WIFE AND THE PITFALL


  BY MARY CHOLMONDELEY,
  AUTHOR OF "RED POTTAGE."


  "Rust in thy gold, a moth is in thine array."
                                   --CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.


  LONDON
  JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
  1902




  TO

  ESSEX.

  Not chance of birth or place has made us friends.




  PREFACE


    My best thanks are due to the Editor of
    _The Graphic_ for his kind permission to
    republish "Geoffrey's Wife," which appeared
    originally in _The Graphic_.

                            MARY CHOLMONDELEY.




CONTENTS


                      PAGE
  MOTH AND RUST          1
  GEOFFREY'S WIFE      241
  THE PITFALL          267


       *       *       *       *       *




MOTH AND RUST




CHAPTER I

    "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
    rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal."


The Vicar gave out the text, and proceeded to expound it. The little
congregation settled down peacefully to listen. Except four of their
number, the "quality" in the carved Easthope pew, none of them had much
treasure on earth. Their treasure for the greater part consisted of a
pig, that was certainly being "laid up" to meet the rent at Christmas.
But there would hardly be time for moth and rust to get into it before
its secluded life should migrate into flitches and pork pies. Not that
the poorest of Mr Long's parishioners had any fear of such an event, for
they never associated his sermons with anything to do with themselves,
except on one occasion when the good man had preached earnestly against
drunkenness, and a respectable widow had ceased to attend divine service
in consequence, because, as she observed, she was not going to be spoken
against like that by any one, be they who they may, after all the years
she had been "on the teetotal."

Perhaps the two farmers who had driven over resplendent wives in
dog-carts had treasure on earth. They certainly had money in the bank at
Mudbury, for they were to be seen striding in in gaiters on market-day
to draw it out. But then it was well known that thieves did not break
through into banks and steal. Banks sometimes broke of themselves, but
not often.

On the whole, the congregation was at its ease. It felt that the text
was well chosen, and that it applied exclusively to the four occupants
of "the Squire's" pew.

The hard-worked Vicar certainly had no treasure on earth, if you
excepted his principal possessions, namely, his pale wife and little
flock of rosy children, and these, of course, were only encumbrances.
Had they not proved to be so? For his cousin had promised him the family
living, and would certainly have kept that promise when it became
vacant, if the wife he had married in the interval had not held such
strong views as to a celibate clergy.

The Vicar was a conscientious man, and the conscientious are seldom
concise.

    "He held with all his tedious might,
      The mirror to the mind of God."

There was no doubt he was tedious, and it was to be hoped that the
portion of the Divine mind not reflected in the clerical mirror would
compensate somewhat for His more gloomy attributes as shown therein.

Mrs Trefusis, "Squire's" mother, an old woman with a thin, knotted face
like worn-out elastic, sat erect throughout the service. She had the
tight-lipped, bitter look of one who has coldly appropriated as her due
all the good things of life, who has fiercely rebelled against every
untoward event, and who now in old age offers a passive, impotent
resistance to anything that suggests a change. She had had an easy,
comfortable existence, but her life had gone hard with her, and her face
showed it.

Near her were the two guests who were staying at Easthope. The villagers
looked at the two girls with deep interest. They had made up their minds
that "the old lady had got 'em in to see