She also began to take interest in the poor people. By Mrs. Weston's
request, Mr. Devereux had pointed out the families which were most in
need of assistance, and Alethea made it her business to find out the
best way of helping them. She visited the village school with
Lilias, and when requested by her and by the Rector to give her aid
in teaching, she did not like to refuse what might be a duty, though
she felt very diffident of her powers of instruction. Marianne, like
Phyllis and Adeline, became a Sunday scholar, and was catechised with
the others in church. Both Mr. Mohun and his nephew thought very
highly of the family, and the latter was particularly glad that Lily
should have some older person to assist her in those parish matters
which he left partly in her charge.
Mr. Devereux had been Rector of Beechcroft about a year and a half,
and had hitherto been much liked. His parishioners had known him
from a boy, and were interested about him, and though very young,
there was something about him that gained their respect. Almost all
his plans were going on well, and things were, on the whole, in a
satisfactory state, though no one but Lilias expected even Cousin
Robert to make a Dreamland of Beechcroft, and there were days when he
looked worn and anxious, and the girls suspected that some one was
behaving ill.
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