Read "Everybody's Business" by Agnes Giberne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THE Vicar was not one who would allow grass to grow under his feet, as the saying is, or who would allow the heated iron to become cold before he struck it. No later than Monday afternoon he set forth upon a round through his parish, subscription list in hand, bent upon getting as many gifts as possible towards the needed lifeboat. He was very much in earnest, very eager in his quest; and, like all subscription collectors, he met with varying success, sometimes receiving more from a quarter where he had expected less, and sometimes receiving less where he had expected more.
The list was headed by ten pounds from himself. This, out of the Vicar's small stipend, after the expenses of his long illness, and considering that he had no private property of his own, meant a great deal more of self-denial than anybody in the Parish was likely to guess,-except indeed his old housekeeper, who "did" for him, with the help of one young girl. But the old housekeeper was no gossip, and Old Maxham was not likely to be the wiser for what she knew.