Pictures of Perfection

Volume the fourth

PROLOGUE BEING AN EXTRACT FROM THE

Journal of Frances Harding

(née Guillemard)

February 18th, 1932.

What a mixed day this has been. The morning was grey and gloomy. At ten Stanley went to the Palace to see the new Bishop. He expected a reproof for his campaign to improve the school, and though he knew that he came close to breaching the law by his encouragement to parents to keep their children away from school till such time as the fabric of the building and the insanitary washrooms etc. should have been put to rights, he hoped that he might at least engage the Bishop’s sympathies. I remained at home, receiving and setting out the items for the sale in the vicarage by which we hoped to boost our fabric fund. When Stanley returned I saw he had received something far worse than a reproof. We are to move, or rather be moved! I see my father’s hand unmistakably in this. He has been unrelenting in his opposition to Stanley. He even makes the whole household drive to Byreford twice on Sundays to worship! And of course his influence in the country is so great that he can bring pressure to bear on a young and inexperienced bishop that even a more experienced man might find hard to bear.

‘Where shall we go?’ I asked Stanley.

‘Nowhere that they want us to go,’ he exclaimed. ‘The Bishop thinks I am bribable with some comfortable suburban parsonage. I told him that if I left it would be to somewhere that needed me more than a Yorkshire suburb. Like Africa.’

The idea both frightens and excites me. But we had no time for discussion because people started to arrive for the sale. Things were going rather slowly, till who should turn up but Job Halavant. He is no churchgoer, but God moves in a mysterious way, and I suspect my father’s withdrawal from church life, and in particular his steadfast refusal to give any help or support to Stanley’s school campaign, has inspired a contrary interest in Job! He bought several pieces of old furniture which Stanley had put up for sale, and he bought Aunt Edwina’s pictures too. I was sorry to see them go. Stanley didn’t want me to sell them as they were all I brought with me from the Hall, but it was precisely for that reason I insisted. He was willing to part with everything of his own, so how could I do less? Job payed an excellent price, then on top of that he added five hundred pounds for the fund. Stanley said if we went on like this, we would be able to do what really ought to be done, which is rebuild the school from scratch. He was half joking, but lo and behold! two hours later Job Halavant returned. He had been on the phone and said that he had persuaded Theo Finch-Hatton to supply stone from his quarry at cost which Job himself would defray. Likewise Joe Nibb’s building firm was going to loan us digging and building equipment free, charging only for labour which again Job was willing to undertake, which meant work could start almost straight away!

Whatever his motives are, this is God’s hand at work. Likewise, if we do go to Africa, it will not be the malice of my father in Old Hall that sends us there but the mercy of Our Father in Heaven.