The Argosy, Vol. 50

About this issue

This serialized domestic novel, running in The Argos (August 1890), follows the Reverend Alfred Halliwell, an impoverished clergyman at St. Stephen's in Chelson, whose living provides barely £150 annually. After attending a cathedral visitation in nearby Chelsbro', Halliwell walks nine miles home in threatening rain, his shabby great coat left behind to avoid shame before wealthier clergy. He purchases ale at a roadside inn and continues through heavy downpour, contrasting his circumstances with those of the affluent Reverend Cockburn, rector of a valuable £1400 living who ignores his colleague's plight. At home, Halliwell finds his wife Mabel resting on an unlit parlor sofa, their children in worn clothes, the household managed by faithful old servant Betty. After warming himself by the kitchen fire and taking tea, he learns a parishioner lies dangerously ill requesting the sacrament and departs again into the wet. The narrative later shows his sister Hester visiting, shocked by Mabel's aged appearance and broken spirit, as Mabel regrets her early marriage into poverty despite family pressure and social expectation.