The signs were all and everywhere favorable. Speculation
was beginning to chink his money-bags; three hundred new banks, as
many railways, were about to be established; old things were about
to fleet and disappear; all things were becoming new; and the serpent
entered Charlemont, and made his way among the people thereof,
without any signs of combustion, or overthrow, or earthquake.
Everybody has some tolerable idea of what the visitation of a
parson is, to the members of his flock. In the big cities he comes
one day, and the quarterly collector the next. He sits down with
the "gude wife" in a corner to themselves, and he speaks to her in
precisely the same low tones which cunning lovers are apt to use.
If he knows any one art better than another, it is that of finding
his way to the affections of the female part of his flock. A subdued
tone of voice betrays a certain deference for the party addressed.
The lady is pleased with such a preliminary. She is flattered again
by the pains he takes in behalf of her eternal interests; she is
pretty sure he takes no such pains with any of her neighbors.
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