CHAPTER LXI
Pryer had done well to warn Ernest against promiscuous house to house
visitation. He had not gone outside Mrs Jupp's street door, and yet what
had been the result?
Mr Holt had put him in bodily fear; Mr and Mrs Baxter had nearly made a
Methodist of him; Mr Shaw had undermined his faith in the Resurrection;
Miss Snow's charms had ruined--or would have done so but for an
accident--his moral character. As for Miss Maitland, he had done his
best to ruin hers, and had damaged himself gravely and irretrievably in
consequence. The only lodger who had done him no harm was the bellows'
mender, whom he had not visited.
Other young clergymen, much greater fools in many respects than he, would
not have got into these scrapes. He seemed to have developed an aptitude
for mischief almost from the day of his having been ordained. He could
hardly preach without making some horrid _faux pas_. He preached one
Sunday morning when the Bishop was at his Rector's church, and made his
sermon turn upon the question what kind of little cake it was that the
widow of Zarephath had intended making when Elijah found her gathering a
few sticks.
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