ned, many even of those who
attended in the morning at Mr. Sainway's service; and little boys who
ought to have been listening to the curate's afternoon lecture were too
often seen rolling upon the grass and making faces behind the more
dignified listeners.

Laura heard no more about the matter, however, for two or three weeks,
when suddenly remembering it she asked her husband if any further
objections had been raised.

'O--Mr. Sainway. I forgot to tell you. I've made his acquaintance. He
is not a bad sort of man.'

Laura asked if either Maumbry or some others of the officers did not give
the presumptuous curate a good setting down for his interference.

'O well--we've forgotten that. He's a stunning preacher, they tell me.'

The acquaintance developed apparently, for the Captain said to her a
little later on, 'There's a good deal in Sainway's argument about having
no band on Sunday afternoons. After all, it is close to his church. But
he doesn't press his objections unduly.'

'I am surprised to hear you defend him!'

'It was only a passing thought of mine. We naturally don't wish to
offend the inhabitants of the town if they don't like it.'

'But they do.'

The invalid in the oriel never clearly gathered the details of progress
in this conflict of lay and clerical opinion; but so it was that, to the
disappointment of musicians, the grief of out-walking lovers, and the
regret of the junior population of the town and country round, the band-
playing on Sunday afternoons ceased in Casterbridge barrack-square.

By this time the Maumbrys had frequently listened to the preaching of the
gentle if narrow-minded curate; for these light-natured, hit-or-miss,
rackety people went to church like others for respectability's sake. None
so orthodox as your unmitigated worldling. A more remarkable event was
the sight to the man in the window of Captain Maumbry and Mr. Sainway
walking down the High Street in earnest conversation. On his mentioning
this fact to a caller he was assured that it was a matter of common talk
that they were always together.

The observer would soon have learnt this with his own eyes if he had not
been told. They began to pass together nearly every day. Hitherto Mrs.
Maumbry, in fashionable walking clothes, had usually been her husband's
companion; but this was less frequent now. The close and singular
friendship between the two men went on for nearly a year, when Mr.
Sainway was pres