nd not into the Vicarage. Frank
thinks that when he afterwards found them in our place,
Sam Brattle had brought them in with a kind of wild idea
of taking the fruit, but that the men, of their own
account, had come round to reconnoitre the house. They
both say that there can be no doubt about the men having
been the same. Then comes the terrible question whether
Sam Brattle, the son of that dear woman at the mill, has
been one of the murderers. He had been at home all the
previous day working very hard at the works,--which are
being done in obedience to your orders, my dear; but he
certainly was out on the Saturday night.

It is very hard to get at any man's belief in such
matters, but, as far as I can understand them, I don't
think that either Frank or Mr. Gilmore do really believe
that he was there. Frank says that it will go very
hard with him, and Mr. Gilmore has committed him. The
magistrates are to sit to-morrow at Heytesbury, and Mr.
Gilmore will be there. He has, as you may be sure, behaved
as well as possible, and has quite altered in his manner
to the old people. I was at the mill this morning. Brattle
himself would not speak to me, but I sat for an hour
with Mrs. Brattle and Fanny. It makes it almost the more
melancholy having all the rubbish and building things
about, and yet the work stopped.

Fanny Brattle has behaved so well! It was she who told
that her brother had been out at night. Mr. Gilmore says
that when the question was asked in his presence, she
answered it in her own quiet, simple way, without a
moment's doubt; but since that she has never ceased to
assert her conviction that her brother has had nothing to
do either with the murder or with the robbery. If it had
not been for this, Mrs. Brattle would, I think, have sunk
under the load. Fanny says the same thing constantly to
her father. He scolds her, and bids her hold her tongue;
but she goes on, and I think it has some effect even on
him. The whole place does look such a picture of ruin! It
would break your heart to see it. And then, when one looks
at the father and mother, one remembers about that other
child, and is almost tempted to ask why such misery should
have fallen upon parents who have been honest, sober,
and industrious. Can it really be that the man is being
punished here on earth because he will not b