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Rh For instance If they really are) ... If they really are all they seem to be." The Clergyman Calls for More Miracles AND so, incredible as it may seem, in the study of the little house behind the Con- gregational Chapel, on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 10, 1896, Mr. Fotheringay, egged on and inspired by Mr. Maydig; began to work miracles. The reader's attention is specially and definitely called to the date. He will ob- ject, probably has objected, that certain points in this story are improbable, that if any things of the sort already described had indeed occurred, they would have been in all the papers at that time. The details immediately following he will find par- ticularly hard to accept, because among other things they involve the conclusion that he or she, the reader in question, must have been killed in a violent and unprecedented manner more than a year ago. Now a miracle is nothing if not improbable, and as a matter of fact the reader was killed in a violent and unprecedented manner in 1896. In the subse- quent course of this story that will become perfectly clear and credible, as every right-minded and reas- onable reader will admit. But this is -not the place for the end of the story, being but little beyond the hither side of the middle. And at first the miracles worked by Mr. Fotheringay were timid little mir- acles — little things with the cups and parlour fit- ments, aa feeble as the miracles of Theosophists, and, feeble as they were, they were received with awe by his collaborator. He would have preferred to settle the Winch business out of hand, but Mr. Maydig would not let him. But after they had worked a dozen of these domestic trivialities, their sense of power grew, their imagination began to show'- signs of stimulation, and their ambition en- larged. Their first larger enterprise was due to hunger and negligence of Mrs. Minchin, Mr. Maydig's housekeeper. The meal to which the min- ister conducted Mr. Fotheringay was certainly ill- laid and uninviting as refreshment for two indus- trious miracle- workers, but they were seated, and Mr. Maydig was descanting in sorrow rather than in anger upon his housekeeper's shortcomings, be- fore it occurred to Mr. Fotheringay that an oppor- tunity lay before him. "Don't you think, Mr. Maydig," he said, "If it isn't a liberty, / " "My dear Mr. Fotheringay! Of course! No — ; I don't think." CHAPTER VII. A Miraculous Meal and Many Reforms MR. FOTHERINGAY waved his hand. "What shall we have?" he said, in a large, inclusive spirit, and, at Mr. Maydig's or- der, revised the supper very thoughtfully, "As for me," he said, eyeing Mr, Maydig's selection, "I am always particularly fond of a tankard of stout, and a nine Welsh rarebit, and I'll order that. I ain't much given to Burgundy," and forthwith stout and Welsh rarebit promptly appeared at his command. They sat long at their supper, talking like equals, as Mr. Fotheringay presently perceived, with a glow of surprise and gratification, of all the miracles they would presently do. "And, by-the-by, Mr. Maydig," said Mr. Fotheringay, "I might perhaps be able to help you — in a domestic way." "Don't quite follow," said Mr. Maydig, pouring out a glass of miraculous old Burgundy. Mr. Fotheringay helped himself to a second Welsh rarebit out of vacancy, and took a mouthful. "I was thinking," he said, "I might be able ■ (chum, chum) to work (chum, chum) a miracle with Mrs. Minchin (chum, chum) — make her a better woman." Mr. Maydig put down the glass and looked doubt- ful. "She's — She strongly objects to interference, you know, Mr. Fotheringay. And — as a matter of fact — it's well past eleven and she's probably in bed and asleep. Do you think, on the whole " Mr. Fotheringay considered these obj'ections. "I don't see that it shouldn't be done in her sleep." For a time Mr. Maydig opposed the idea, and then he yielded. Mr. Fotheringay issued his orders, and a little less at their ease, perhaps, the two gentle- men proceeded with their repast. Mr. Maydig was enlarging on the changes he might expect in his housekeeper next day with an optimism that seemed even to Mr. Fotheringay's supper sense a little forced and hectic, when a series of confused noises from upstairs began. Their eyes exchanged inter- rogations, and Mr. Maydig left the room hastily. Mr. Fotheringay heard him calling up to his house- keeper and then his footsteps going softly up to her. In a minute or so the minister returned, his step light, his face radiant. "Wonderful!" he said, "and touching! Most touching!" He began pacing the hearthrug. "A repentance — a most touching repentance — through the crack of the door. Poor woman ! A most wonderful change I She had got up. She must have got up at once. She had got up out of her sleep to smash a private bottle of brandy in her box. And to confess it too! . . . But this gives us— it opens — a most amazing vista of possibilities. If we can work this miracu- lous change in her ., ." "The thing's unlimited seemingly," said Mr. Foth- eringay. "And about Mr. Winch " "Altogether unlimited." And from the hearthrug Mr. Maydig, waving the Winch difficulty aside, un- folded a series of wonderful proposals — proposals he invented as he went along. Now what those proposals were does not concern the essentials of this story. Suffice it that they were designed in a spirit of infinite benevolence, the sort of benevolence that used to be called post-prandial. Suffice it, too, that the problem of Winch remained unsolved. Nor is it necessary to describe how far that series got to its fulfilment. There were as- tonishing changes. The small hours found Mr. May- dig and Mr. Fotheringay careering across the chilly market square under the still moon, in a sort of ecstasy of thurmaturgy, Mr. Maydig all flap and gesture, Mr. Fotheringay short and bristling, and no longer abashed at hi3 greatness. They had re- formed every drunkard in the Parliamentary divi- sion, changed all the beer and alcohol to water (Mr. Maydig had overruled Mr. Fotheringay on this point) ; they had, further, greatly improved the railroad communication of the place, drained Flin- der's swamp, improved the soil of One Tree Hill and cored the vicar's wart. And they were going to see what could be done with the injured pier at