g to church to see him."

Mrs Grey had half-a-dozen faults or oddities of Mr Walcot's to tell of
already; but she was quietly checked in the middle of her list by Mr
Hope, who observed that he was bound to exercise the same justice
towards Mr Walcot that he hoped to receive from him--to listen to no
evil of him which could not be substantiated: and it was certainly too
early yet for anything to be known about him by strangers, beyond what
he looked like.

"To go no deeper than his looks, then," continued Mrs Grey, "nobody can
pretend to admire them. He is extremely short. Have you heard how
short he is?"

"Yes; that inspired me with some respect for him, to begin with. I have
heard so much of my being too tall, all my life, that I am apt to feel a
profound veneration for men who have made the furthest escape from that
evil. By the way, my dear, I should not wonder if Enderby is disposed
in Walcot's favour by this, for he is even taller than I."

"I am surprised that you can joke on such a subject, Mr Hope. I assure
you, you are not the only sufferers by this extraordinary circumstance
of Mr Walcot's arrival. It is very hard upon us, that we are to have
him for an opposite neighbour--in Mrs Enderby's house, you know.
Sophia and I have been in the habit of observing that house, for the old
lady's sake, many times in a day. We scarcely ever looked out, but we
saw her cap over the blind, or some one or another was at the door,
about one little affair or another. It has been a great blank since she
was removed--the shutters shut, and the bills up, and nobody going and
coming. But now we can never look that way."

"I am afraid you will have to get Paxton to put up a weathercock for you
on his barn, so that you may look in the opposite direction for the
wind."

"Nay, Edward, it is really an evil," said Hester, "to have an unwelcome
stranger settled in an opposite house, where an old friend has long
lived. I can sympathise with Mrs Grey."

"So can I, my dear. It is an evil: but I should, under any
circumstances, hold myself free to look out of my window in any
direction--that is all. Do, Mrs Grey, indulge yourself so far."

"We cannot possibly notice him, you know. It must be distinctly
understood, that we can have nothing to say to an interloper like Mr
Walcot. Mr Grey is quite of my opinion. You will have our support in
every way, my dear sir; for it is perfectly plain to our minds, that all
this woul