Read Online Rosa's Child by Jeremy Josephs - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jeremy Josephs
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unable to resist asking exactly how far the liaison had progressed. 'Has he kissed you yet?' he asked over dinner one evening, doing his best to make it sound like a casual enquiry. For if there had been any kissing, what other tokens of affection might the couple have exchanged? And what potentially damaging information might his daughter have confided to the young man? It was desperately important to find out. On this occasion the Reverend found out nothing incriminating at all - not even if Grace had received an innocent peck on the cheek - for Irene at once upbraided him for asking, thereby sparing her daughter the embarrassment of having to answer and frustrating her husband still further.
Bent on discomforting Grace's suitor in any way he could, one day the Reverend, on seeing the couple walking arm in arm in the street, went as far as to shout out: 'Young man, your arm!'
What else could he do to thwart their amour? the Reverend wondered. Perhaps to impose one petty restriction after another was the answer, he decided.
'No, Grace, you certainly can't wear a string of pearls,' he summarily announced after inspecting his daughter's first romantic gift. 'I'll send them back.'
'No, Grace, he certainly cannot pay for you to subscribe to the tennis club. That is my job. I'll send the application back.'
The minister was convinced that a succession of such discouragements would eventually wear down the hapless bank clerk. However, soon after she had returned the artificial-pearl necklace and the tennis-club membership form, Grace learned that she was to enjoy a reprieve. For the Reverend, a highly respected figure in the world of Baptist nonconformism, had been invited to give a lecture-tour of the United States. Greatly flattered by the honour, he accepted - to his daughter's delight.
The organizers of the Reverend Mann's itinerary had prepared a punishing schedule involving nine flights and fifteen preaching engagements, all to be completed within twenty working days. In New York, then Buffalo, Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, the minister was deeply impressed by the vastness of the congregations before him. It was a far cry from preaching in the suburbs of Cardiff. In addition, their appreciation of his ministry was more warm and effusive than anything he had ever experienced in Britain. Likewise he encountered a far more open response in person-to-person contact with those who flocked to hear him.
The Reverend had cultivated a style of preaching which went down particularly well in the United States. Delivered in his deep and creamy Welsh tones, it was characterized by his customary force and conviction. Hand waving and pounding of the lectern helped to drive home to his audience his powerful message of compassion. Before long he was espousing a crucial tenet of American evangelism: that effective preaching is inextricably linked with effective finance. In this respect, thanks to the generosity of his various congregations, his tour was proving to be more fruitful than anything he had ever experienced in his church career. Indeed on one occasion, preaching at Wheaton, Illinois, on a Sunday morning, and then later at the evening service - both times with well over a thousand people present - he was handed a cheque for a sum so large that at first he was minded to refuse it altogether.
'But this is too much, surely,' he protested, only to be told that such sizeable offerings were standard practice in Wheaton, a city long recognized as a centre of religious activity and sometimes referred to as the 'Protestant Vatican of the Midwest'.
Did those three tumultuous weeks mean that Grace's relationship with David was able to proceed uninterrupted for a while at least? Not at all. For although the Reverend was thousands of miles away, he had no intention of giving up. He never gave up. It was just as just as well for him, therefore, that he still had one trump card up his sleeve.
He might have been on a whirlwind tour
Bent on discomforting Grace's suitor in any way he could, one day the Reverend, on seeing the couple walking arm in arm in the street, went as far as to shout out: 'Young man, your arm!'
What else could he do to thwart their amour? the Reverend wondered. Perhaps to impose one petty restriction after another was the answer, he decided.
'No, Grace, you certainly can't wear a string of pearls,' he summarily announced after inspecting his daughter's first romantic gift. 'I'll send them back.'
'No, Grace, he certainly cannot pay for you to subscribe to the tennis club. That is my job. I'll send the application back.'
The minister was convinced that a succession of such discouragements would eventually wear down the hapless bank clerk. However, soon after she had returned the artificial-pearl necklace and the tennis-club membership form, Grace learned that she was to enjoy a reprieve. For the Reverend, a highly respected figure in the world of Baptist nonconformism, had been invited to give a lecture-tour of the United States. Greatly flattered by the honour, he accepted - to his daughter's delight.
The organizers of the Reverend Mann's itinerary had prepared a punishing schedule involving nine flights and fifteen preaching engagements, all to be completed within twenty working days. In New York, then Buffalo, Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, the minister was deeply impressed by the vastness of the congregations before him. It was a far cry from preaching in the suburbs of Cardiff. In addition, their appreciation of his ministry was more warm and effusive than anything he had ever experienced in Britain. Likewise he encountered a far more open response in person-to-person contact with those who flocked to hear him.
The Reverend had cultivated a style of preaching which went down particularly well in the United States. Delivered in his deep and creamy Welsh tones, it was characterized by his customary force and conviction. Hand waving and pounding of the lectern helped to drive home to his audience his powerful message of compassion. Before long he was espousing a crucial tenet of American evangelism: that effective preaching is inextricably linked with effective finance. In this respect, thanks to the generosity of his various congregations, his tour was proving to be more fruitful than anything he had ever experienced in his church career. Indeed on one occasion, preaching at Wheaton, Illinois, on a Sunday morning, and then later at the evening service - both times with well over a thousand people present - he was handed a cheque for a sum so large that at first he was minded to refuse it altogether.
'But this is too much, surely,' he protested, only to be told that such sizeable offerings were standard practice in Wheaton, a city long recognized as a centre of religious activity and sometimes referred to as the 'Protestant Vatican of the Midwest'.
Did those three tumultuous weeks mean that Grace's relationship with David was able to proceed uninterrupted for a while at least? Not at all. For although the Reverend was thousands of miles away, he had no intention of giving up. He never gave up. It was just as just as well for him, therefore, that he still had one trump card up his sleeve.
He might have been on a whirlwind tour
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