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THE SOUL OF SUSAN YELLAM

by

HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL

Author of
Some Happenings, Quinneys,
Blinds Down, Loot, etc.







[Illustration: printer's decoration]

New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers

Copyright, 1918,
By George H. Doran Company

Printed in the United States of America




  TO THE MEMORY OF
  MY SON
  RICHARD TANFIELD VACHELL
  CAPTAIN, FIFTH FUSILIERS




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                           PAGE

      I MOTHER AND SON                11

     II FANCY BROOMFIELD              27

    III INTRODUCING MRS. MUCKLOW      42

     IV LE PAYS DU TENDRE             57

      V UNCLE                         70

     VI FIRST IMPRESSIONS             86

    VII SECOND IMPRESSIONS           101

   VIII RECRUITING                   116

     IX PARSON'S METHODS             130

      X FANCY'S ORDEAL               144

     XI THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS       160

    XII THE EMPTY PEW                174

   XIII FANCY CONSULTS THE CARDS     190

    XIV HYMENEAL                     203

     XV LEANNESS OF SOUL             217

    XVI SAINT WILLUM                 234

   XVII FOOL-WISDOM                  248

  XVIII MISSING!                     263

    XIX SUSPENSE                     279

     XX THE TRAVELLER RETURNS        294




THE SOUL OF SUSAN YELLAM




THE
SOUL OF SUSAN YELLAM




CHAPTER I

MOTHER AND SON


The village church at Nether-Applewhite has been described as an
interesting chapter in ecclesiastical architecture. It stands a little
apart from the cottages upon a hill which presents something of the
appearance of a tumulus. Part of the church is Norman, but to the
uninstructed the outside has been mellowed by time and weather into a
charming homogeneity. It was embellished early in the eighteenth century
by the addition of a brick tower. The inside is likely to challenge even
the uncritical eye. The transept is as long as the nave, and two large
galleries arrest attention in the west end. Overlooking the chancel is
the Squire's pew, a sort of royal opera-box, provided with chairs, a
table, and a fireplace, not to mention a private entrance. Opposite to
this, across the chancel, stands a three-decker pulpit of
seventeenth-century woodwork, with a fine hexagonal canopy. On the north
side of the steps to the chancel is a mutilated fifteenth-century
screen.

Squire and parson can see every member of the congregation.

There are large pews in nave and transept occupied by the gentry and
farmers, and many small pews which--although the seats in the church are
spoken of as "free"--have been used habitually by certain cottagers. One
of these pews in the nave was known as the Yellam pew. Sunday after
Sunday, rain or shine, Susan Yellam sat bolt upright in her pew. Her
son, Alfred, sat beside her. Mother and son were never guilty of missing
a response, or of looking behind them, or of failing to contribute
something in copper to the offertory plate. If a stranger happened to be
conducting the service, and if he was so lost to a sense of duty as to
display unseemly haste, Mrs. Yellam's voice might be heard, loud and
clear, setting the proper pace. At the end of every prayer, her "Amen"
came to be accepted, even by the young and thoughtless, as a grace and
benediction. Always she wore decent black, as became a woman who had
buried--in the churchyard outside--a husband and three children. But her
Easter bonnet had a touch of mauve in it.

Her clothes were not the least part of a tremendous personality.
Children believed that she went to bed in her black gown. Authority
exuded from every pore of her skin. Probably Boadicea was cast in just
such a generous mould. She possessed, as will be seen presently, that
British cocksureness which so endears us to foreigners. Her particular
views upon religion, politics, ethics and agriculture (she tended her
own garden admirably)--views constantly aired for the benefit of her
neighbours--had become indurated by use. They had stood, as she informed
all and sundry, the test of time and experience. The Parson, Mr. Hamlin,
observed of her that she was temperamentally incapable of detecting the
defects of her great qualities. She supported Squire and Parson in all
