And when she did coax him to take her to Bristol on any errand she
could invent, to sell her yarns, or buy pins, or even a ribbon, he
was inexorable in leaving her under Mrs. Lightfoot's care, and she
had to submit, even though it sometimes involved saying her catechism
to Dr. Eales. Yet that always ended in the old man's petting her.
It was only from her chatter that the old clergyman ever knew of the
proposal that Stead had rejected for conscience's sake. It vexed the
lad so much that he really could not bear to think of it, and it
would come over him now and then, was it all for nothing? Would the
Church ever lift up her head again? or would Mr. Woodley be always in
possession at Elmwood Church, where everyone seemed to be content
with him. The Kentons went thither. It was hardly safe to abstain,
for a fine upon absence was still the law of the land, though seldom
enforced; and Dr. Eales who considered Presbyterianism by far the
least unorthodox and most justifiable sect, had advised Stead not to
allow himself or the others altogether to lose the habit of public
worship, but to abstain from Communions which might be an act of
separation from the Church, and which could not be accepted by her
children as genuine.
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