Mark Storey, the newly inducted vicar of St Barnabas’ Church in the East London borough of Bethnal Green. Each month Tom felt more uncomfortable about this censorship of their letters. The one-time awkward, well-meaning curate now had charge of a rough, sometimes dangerous parish, and the shy girl dreaming of love in a vicarage had become a capable young woman of eighteen, as pretty as ever, and much loved and respected at Miss Daniells’ school. And she remained as unwavering in her attachment to Mark Storey as his for her. They had served almost two years of enforced separation from each other, during which time they had not once met, for when Mark had invited Isabel and her parents to attend his induction earlier in the year, Tom had given way to his wife’s insistence that they should decline. A complete separation decreed by a bishop should be strictly observed, she argued, though Tom was not as convinced as she was, and now regretted their decision. For one thing, it would have given Isabel an opportunity to compare the relatively rural life of North Camp with the poverty and hardship of an East London parish, a life that she might be required to share in due time.
