ble or she was stupid; for she said she did not know, but
would ask master; and of course the landlord came in to understand what
it was I wanted to know; and I had to bring out all my stammering
inquiries before Mr Holdsworth, who would never have attended to them,
I dare say, if I had not blushed, and blundered, and made such a fool
of myself.

'Yes,' the landlord said, 'the Hope Farm was in Heathbridge proper, and
the owner's name was Holman, and he was an Independent minister, and,
as far as the landlord could tell, his wife's Christian name was
Phillis, anyhow her maiden name was Green.'

'Relations of yours?' asked Mr Holdsworth.

'No, sir--only my mother's second-cousins. Yes, I suppose they are
relations. But I never saw them in my life.'

'The Hope Farm is not a stone's throw from here,' said the officious
landlord, going to the window. 'If you carry your eye over yon bed of
hollyhocks, over the damson-trees in the orchard yonder, you may see a
stack of queer-like stone chimneys. Them is the Hope Farm chimneys;
it's an old place, though Holman keeps it in good order.'

Mr Holdsworth had risen from the table with more promptitude than I
had, and was standing by the window, looking. At the landlord's last
words, he turned round, smiling,--'It is not often that parsons know
how to keep land in order, is it?'

'Beg pardon, sir, but I must speak as I find; and Minister Holman--we
call the Church clergyman here "parson," sir; he would be a bit jealous
if he heard a Dissenter called parson--Minister Holman knows what he's
about as well as e'er a farmer in the neighbourhood. He gives up five
days a week to his own work, and two to the Lord's; and it is difficult
to say which he works hardest at. He spends Saturday and Sunday
a-writing sermons and a-visiting his flock at Hornby; and at five
o'clock on Monday morning he'll be guiding his plough in the Hope Farm
yonder just as well as if he could neither read nor write. But your
dinner will be getting cold, gentlemen.'

So we went back to table. After a while, Mr Holdsworth broke the
silence:--'If I were you, Manning, I'd look up these relations of
yours. You can go and see what they're like while we re waiting for
Dobson's estimates, and I'll smoke a cigar in the garden meanwhile.'

'Thank you, sir. But I don't know them, and I don't think I want to
know them.'

'What did you ask all those questions for, then?' said he, looking
quickly up at me. He had no noti