The New Rector by Stanley J. Weyman

Stephen Clode, while listening with a certain pleasure to the archdeacon's hints, did not dream of the good turn which fortune was about to do him. If he had foreseen it, he would probably have taken a bolder part in the conversation, and parted from the elder clergyman with a more jubilant step. As it was, he heard no rumor that evening, nor was it until ten o'clock on the Sunday morning that he learned anything was amiss. Calling at the house in the churchyard at that hour, he was received by Mrs. Baker herself; and he remarked at once that the housekeeper's face fell in a manner far from flattering when she recognized him.

"Oh, it is you, is it, Mr. Clode? " she said, her tone one of disappointment. "You have not seen him, sir, have you?"