He was a middle-aged man, ponderous and slow of motion, with a latent pomposity, which he rendered as agreeable as possible by the urbanity of his manners.

He was a man of a lofty spirit, who believed in his office as something exalted above all other dignities of this earth--less lucrative, of course, than a bishopric or the woolsack, and of a narrower range, but quite as important on a small scale.

"The world might get on pretty well without bishops," thought Mr.
Stoneham, when he pondered upon these things as he smoked his churchwarden pipe; "but what would become of a parish in which there was no clerk ?" This gentleman, seeing Gilbert Fenton approach, was quick to surmise that the stranger came in answer to the letter he had written the day before.
The advent of a stranger in Wygrove was so rare an occurrence, that it was natural enough for him to jump at this conclusion.
"I believe you are Mr.Stoneham," said Gilbert, "and the writer of a letter in answer to an advertisement in the _Times_." "My name is Stoneham, sir; I am the clerk of this parish, and have been for twenty years and more, as I think I may have stated in the letter to which you refer.

Will you be so kind as to step inside ?" Mr.Stoneham waved his hand towards the parlour, to which apartment Gilbert descended.

Here he found Mrs.Stoneham, a meek little sandy-haired woman, who seemed to be borne down by the weight of her lord's dignity; and Miss Stoneham, also meek and sandy, with a great many stiff little corkscrew ringlets budding out all over her head and a sharp little inquiring nose.
These ladies would have retired on Gilbert's entrance, but he begged them to remain; and after a good deal of polite hesitation they consented to do so, Mrs.Stoneham resuming her seat before the tea-tray, and Miss Stoneham retiring to a little table by the window, where she was engaged in trimming a bonnet.
"I want to know all about this marriage, Mr.Stoneham," Gilbert began, when he had seated himself in a shining mahogany arm-chair by the empty fire-place.