rst made himself intimate
at the mill Mrs. Brattle had thought that her husband's habits of
life would have been to him as wormwood and gall,--that he would be
unable not to chide, and well she knew that her husband would bear no
chiding. By degrees she had come to understand that this new parson
was one who talked more of life with its sorrows, and vices, and
chances of happiness, and possibilities of goodness, than he did
of the requirements of his religion. For herself inwardly she had
grieved at this, and, possibly, also for him; but, doubtless, there
had come to her some comfort, which she did not care to analyse, from
the manner in which "the master," as she called him, Pagan as he was,
had been treated by her clergyman. She wondered that it should be so,
but yet it was a relief to her to know that God's messenger should
come to her, and yet say never a word of his message to that hard
lord, whom she so feared and so loved, and who was, as she well knew,
too stubborn to receive it. And Fenwick had spoken,--still spoke
to her, so tenderly of her erring, fallen child, never calling her
a castaway, talking of her as Carry, who might yet be worthy of
happiness here and of all joy hereafter; that when she thought
of him as a minister of God, whose duty it was to pronounce God's
threats to erring human beings, she was almost alarmed. She could
hardly understand his leniency,--his abstinence from reproof; but
entertained a vague, wandering, unformed wish that, as he never
opened the vials of his wrath on them, he would pour it out upon
her,--on her who would bear it for their sake so meekly. If there was
such a wish it was certainly doomed to disappointment. At this moment
Fanny came in and curtseyed as she gave her hand to the parson.

"Was Sam at home last night, Fan?" asked the mother, in a sad, low
voice.

"Yes, mother. He slept in his bed."

"You are sure?" said the parson.

"Quite sure. I heard him this morning as he went out. It was about
five. He spoke to me, and I answered him."

"What did he say?"

"That he must go over to Lavington, and wouldn't be home till
nightfall. I told him where he would find bread and cheese, and he
took it."

"But you didn't see him last night?"

"No, sir. He comes in at all hours, when he pleases. He was at dinner
before yesterday, but I haven't seen him since. He didn't go nigh the
mill after dinner that day."

Then Mr. Fenwick considered how much he would tell to the m