Read "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
There was excitement in the parish of Narrobourne one day. The congregation had just come out from morning service, and the whole conversation was of the new curate, Mr. Halborough, who had officiated for the first time, in the absence of the rector.
Never before had the feeling of the villagers approached a level which could be called excitement on such a matter as this. The droning which had been the rule in that quiet old place for a century seemed ended at last. They repeated the text to each other as a refrain: "O Lord, be thou my helper! " Not within living memory till today had the subject of the sermon formed the topic of conversation from the church door to churchyard gate, to the exclusion of personal remarks on those who had been present, and on the week's news in general.