H.E. Bates Companion

One of three comic tales that feature Miss Shuttleworth (also in "The Song of the Wren" and "The Proposal"). Miss Shuttleworth, more than a match for a visiting minister, proclaims that she belongs to "the faith of the sun, the sky, the moon, the earth and the waters under the earth." Convincing him to try one homemade potion after another, she engages the tipsy Reverend in a theological debate until, stunned, he wobbles away and falls to his knees to pray for "the illogical, eccentric, crazy character...and as he said the words the hollyhock, pink as the setting sun, fell slowly, pure silk, from his buttonhole, and seemed to blossom in the grass." In The Song of the Wren (1972). Reprinted in Candida (December 2, 1972).