letters were left till fetched. She only expected
one, but that one was to tell her of Leonard. She, however, received
two; the unexpected one was from Mr Bradshaw, and the news it
contained was, if possible, a greater surprise than the letter
itself. Mr Bradshaw informed her, that he planned arriving by
dinner-time the following Saturday at Eagle's Crag; and more, that he
intended bringing Mr Donne and one or two other gentlemen with him,
to spend the Sunday there! The letter went on to give every possible
direction regarding the household preparations. The dinner-hour was
fixed to be at six; but, of course, Ruth and the girls would have
dined long before. The (professional) cook would arrive the day
before, laden with all the provisions that could not be obtained
on the spot. Ruth was to engage a waiter from the inn, and this it
was that detained her so long. While she sat in the little parlour,
awaiting the coming of the landlady, she could not help wondering why
Mr Bradshaw was bringing this strange gentleman to spend two days
at Abermouth, and thus giving himself so much trouble and fuss of
preparation.

There were so many small reasons that went to make up the large one
which had convinced Mr Bradshaw of the desirableness of this step,
that it was not likely that Ruth should guess at one half of them. In
the first place, Miss Benson, in the pride and fulness of her heart,
had told Mrs Bradshaw what her brother had told her; how he meant to
preach upon the Christian view of the duties involved in political
rights; and as, of course, Mrs Bradshaw had told Mr Bradshaw, he
began to dislike the idea of attending chapel on that Sunday at all;
for he had an uncomfortable idea that by the Christian standard--that
divine test of the true and pure--bribery would not be altogether
approved of; and yet he was tacitly coming round to the understanding
that "packets" would be required, for what purpose both he and Mr
Donne were to be supposed to remain ignorant. But it would be very
awkward, so near to the time, if he were to be clearly convinced that
bribery, however disguised by names and words, was in plain terms
a sin. And yet he knew Mr Benson had once or twice convinced him
against his will of certain things, which he had thenceforward found
it impossible to do, without such great uneasiness of mind, that he
had left off doing them, which was sadly against his interest. And if
Mr Donne (whom he had intended to take with