bout his park, and rode about his
farms, and talked with the wealthier farmers on hunting mornings. He
had a full conception of his own dignity, and some not altogether
inaccurate idea of the manner in which it would become him to sustain
it. He was, perhaps, a little too self-conscious, and over-inclined
to suppose that people were regarding his conduct because he was
Newton of Newton;--Newton of Newton with no blot on his shield, by
right of his birth, and subject to no man's reproach.

He had failed grievously in one matter on which he had set his heart;
but as to that he was, as the reader knows, resolved to try again. He
had declared his passion to the other Ralph, but his rival had not
made the confidence mutual. But hitherto he had said nothing on the
subject to his brother. He had put it by, as it were, out of his mind
for awhile, resolving that it should not trouble him immediately, in
the middle of his new joys. It was a thing that would keep,--a thing,
at any rate, that need not overshadow him night and morning. When
Neefit continued to disturb him with threats of publicity in regard
to Polly's wrongs, he did tell himself that in no way could he so
effectually quiet Mr. Neefit as by marrying somebody else, and that
he would, at some very early date, have recourse to this measure;
but, in the meantime, he would enjoy himself without letting his
unrequited passion lie too heavily as a burden on his heart. So
he eat and drank, and rode and prayed, and sat with his brother
magistrates on the bench, and never ceased to think of his good
fortune, in that he had escaped from the troubles of his youth,
unscathed and undegraded.

Then there came a further letter from Mr. Neefit, from which there
arose some increase of confidence among the brothers. There was
nothing special in this letter. These letters, indeed, were very
like to each other, and, as had now come to be observed, were always
received on a Tuesday morning. It was manifest to them that Neefit
spent the leisure hours of his Sundays in meditating upon the
hardness of his position; and that, as every Monday morning came,
he caused a new letter to be written. On this particular Tuesday,
Ralph had left home before the post had come, and did not get the
breeches-maker's epistle till his return from hunting. He chucked
it across the table to Gregory when he came down to dinner, and the
parson read it. There was no new attack in it; and as the servant was
in t