.
Even Gilmore had expressed disapprobation. The Vicar, in his pride,
had turned a deaf ear to them all. He began to fear now that possibly
he had been wrong in the favours shown to Sam Brattle.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LAST DAY.

[Illustration]

The parson's visit to the mill was on a Saturday. The next Sunday
passed by very quietly, and nothing was seen of Mr. Gilmore at the
Vicarage. He was at church, and walked with the two ladies from the
porch to their garden gate, but he declined Mrs. Fenwick's invitation
to lunch, and was not seen again on that day. The parson had sent
word to Fanny Brattle during the service to stop a few minutes for
him, and had learned from her that Sam had not been at home last
night. He had also learned, before the service that morning, that
very early on the Saturday, probably about four o'clock, two men
had passed through Paul's Hinton with a huxter's cart and a pony.
Now Paul's Hinton, or Hinton Saint Paul's as it should be properly
called, was a long straggling village, six miles from Bullhampton,
and half-way on the road to Market Lavington, to which latter place
Sam had told his sister that he was going. Putting these things
together, Mr. Fenwick did not in the least doubt but the two men in
the cart were they who had been introduced to his garden by young
Brattle.

"I only hope," said the parson, "that there's a good surgeon at
Market Lavington. One of the gentlemen in that cart must have wanted
him, I take it." Then he thought that it might, perhaps, be worth his
while to trot over to Lavington in the course of the week, and make
inquiries.

On the Wednesday Mary Lowther was to go back to Loring. This seemed
like a partial break-up of their establishment, both to the parson
and his wife. Fenwick had made up his mind that Mary was to be his
nearest neighbour for life, and had fallen into the way of treating
her accordingly, telling her of things in the parish as he might have
done to the Squire's wife, presuming the Squire's wife to have been
on the best possible terms with him. He now regarded Mary as being
almost an impostor. She had taken him in and obtained his confidence
under false pretences. It was true that she might still come and
fill the place that he had appointed for her. He rather thought
that at last she would do so. But he was angry with her because she
hesitated. She was creating an unnecessary disturbance among them.
She had, he thought, been now wooed