eflections were not so pleasant as they might have been,
and they were no pleasanter for having received curt and cold welcome
that morning from several of his acquaintances in Cranbrook. People
manifestly disapproved of his recent action. There were many who
sympathised but little with Alice Benden's opinions, and would even have
been gratified by the detection and punishment of a heretic, who were
notwithstanding disgusted and annoyed that a quiet, gentle, and
generally respected gentlewoman should be denounced to the authorities
by her own husband. He, of all men, should have shielded and screened
her. Even Justice Roberts had nearly as much as told him so. Mr
Benden felt himself a semi-martyr. The world was hard on disinterested
virtue, and had no sympathy with self-denial. It is true, the world did
not know his sufferings at the hands of Mary, who could not send up a
decent hash--and who was privately of opinion that an improper hash, or
no hash at all, was quite good enough for the man who had accused her
dear mistress to the authorities. Mr Benden was growing tired of
disinterested virtue, which was its own reward, and a very poor one.

"I can't stand this much longer; I must have Alice back!" was his
reflection as he alighted from the bay horse.

But Nemesis had no intention of letting him off thus easily. Mistress
Tabitha Hall had carried home her geese and frying-pan, and after
roasting and eating the former with chestnut sauce, churning the week's
supply of butter, setting the bread to rise, and indicating to Friswith
and Joan, her elder daughters, what would be likely to happen to them if
the last-named article were either over or under-baked, she changed her
gown from a working woollen to an afternoon camlet, and took her way to
Briton's Mead. Mr Benden had supped as best he might on a very tough
chicken pie, with a crust not much softer than crockery, and neither his
digestion nor his temper was in a happy condition, when Mary rapped at
the door, and much to her own satisfaction informed her master that
Mistress Hall would fain have speech of him. Mr Benden groaned almost
audibly. Could he by an act of will have transported Tabitha to the
further side of the Mountains of the Moon, nobody in Staplehurst would
have seen much more of her that year. But, alas! he had to run the
gauntlet of her comments on himself and his proceedings, which he well
knew would not be complimentary. For a full hour