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dispute in
Upper Clodding), he conducted holy services, sipped weak tea with the
elders, delivered his sermons and read his Bible, while tormented by
dreams of missed trains and lost objects. Over time, disappointment
surely took a toll upon his disposition; yet his sermons continued to
deliver more honey than brimstone, his house–calls provided a
wellspring of solace and hope; in sum, their bachelor reverend seemed
settled and content.

    Thus,
it came as no small shock to the congregation when the fixture in the
pulpit announced his engagement to one Euphemia Root –
familiarly known as 'Birdie', a comely girl of fifteen whose family
owned a dry–goods shop in the village.

    Less
than a month after this startling broadcast, the pair were married by
the vicar from Hereford. Nine months later, or possibly less (fingers
counted the weeks, the human hand became an abacus), Birdie gave
birth to a daughter, who was named Emma. Three years later, Lydia
appeared.

    It
is true that the Church of England does not adhere to the tradition
of a celibate priesthood; notwithstanding, among Anglican
parishioners the prospect of sexual activity by the clergy is an
unsavoury one, even when practised within the bond of holy matrimony.

    At
service, the presence of his young wife and girls stimulated unwanted
fancies among the faithful, and if there is a time and place in which
such thoughts should remain absent, surely that place and time is in
church of a Sunday morning. To some, the marriage of their vicar came
to symbolise the Fall of Man, with the Lamberts as the first couple
and a serpent coiled beneath the pulpit. The rift grew wider when
Emma blossomed into a miniature version of her well–favoured
mother, with an unsettling gaze and an aspect of premature knowing.
Despite the whispers at every tea–table, Lambert continued his
duties with stoic determination. Less sanguine was his young wife,
for whom the disapproving stares were like needles in the flesh. As
the stares and the whispers grew sharper, it became her practice to
cover her face with a white veil – not out of modesty, but from
a desire not to see the faces of her former acquaintances.

    It
was at this point of increasing turmoil that Lambert's teeth began to
bother him. First one tooth throbbed, then its neighbour, until the
entire set took turns. As the affliction worsened, he began to
suspect, however irrationally, that a connection existed between his
constant pain and his stunted ambitions.

    Eventually,
word of a chill in the relations between the shepherd of Upper
Clodding and his flock (as well as a drop in collection revenue)
caught the attention of the bishop, whereupon the Reverend C. G.
Lambert at last received a new appointment, as precentor at the
Church of St Swithan, Chester Wolds, Oxfordshire, where his fine
baritone was to lead the singing – an inferior designation, but
in a superior church.

    Like
a divine intervention a window had opened to admit the warm sunlight
of Hope. Surely it will not be long before the Oxford congregation
becomes his – for it is well known that the current vicar,
Reverend Spoole, suffers from declining health.

    Like
Job, C. G. Lambert is about to receive his reward.

    Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord
thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate
me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep
my commandments.

    Emma
listens while her sister recites the commandments, thinking that it
does not present a flattering picture of the Creator that He punishes
children for the sins of the father. And yet, do not the children of
drunkards and brutes suffer for the sins of the father? Emma thinks
she might understand her father better had she met his father; but
then her grandfather might have simply pointed to his own ancestors,
on and on, back to Adam.

    As
for Emma's mother, it