suited him to let his
wife entertain that idea. The men would hardly have come from the
kitchen garden up to the house and round the corner at which he had
met them, if they were seeking fruit. Presuming it to have been their
intention to attempt the drawing-room windows, he would have expected
to meet them as he did meet them. From the garden the Vicar and the
two ladies went down to the gate, and from thence over the stile to
Farmer Trumbull's farmyard. The farmer had not again seen the men,
after the Squire had left him, nor had he heard them. To him the
parson said nothing of his encounter, and nothing of that blow on
the man's back. From thence Mr. Fenwick went on to the town, and the
ladies returned to the Vicarage.

The only person whom the parson at once consulted was the
surgeon,--Dr. Cuttenden, as he was called. No man with an injured
shoulder-blade had come to him last night or that morning. A man, he
said, might receive a very violent blow on his back, in the manner
in which the fellow had been struck, and might be disabled for days
from any great personal exertion, without having a bone broken.
If the blade of his shoulder were broken, the man--so thought the
doctor--could not travel far on foot, would hardly be able to get
away to any of the neighbouring towns unless he were carried. Of
Sam Brattle the parson said nothing to the doctor; but when he had
finished his morning's work about the town, he walked on to the mill.

In the mean time the two ladies remained at home at the Parsonage.
The excitement occasioned by the events of the previous night was
probably a little damaged by the knowledge that Mr. Gilmore was
coming. The coming of Mr. Gilmore on this occasion was so important
that even the terrible idea of burglars, and the sensation arising
from the use of that deadly weapon which had been produced at the
breakfast table during the morning, were robbed of some of their
interest. They did not keep possession of the minds of the two ladies
as they would have done had there been no violent interrupting cause.
But here was the violent interrupting cause, and by the time that
lunch was on the table, Sam Brattle and his comrades were forgotten.

Very little was said between the two women on that morning respecting
Mr. Gilmore. Mrs. Fenwick, who had allowed herself to be convinced
that Mary would act with great impropriety if she did not accept
the man, thought that further speech might only render her