chiefly his affairs as they had reference to
Mr Fleming. No one whose opinion or judgment he cared about blamed him
openly. It would have required some courage to do so. For Jacob was
the rich man of the church, as he was of the town, and had much in his
power in a community where voluntary offerings were depended upon as a
means of covering all expenses. But the work commenced on the Varney
place made matter for discussion among people who had not the motive for
silence that existed among Jacob's personal friends and brethren.

That he meant to bring Mr Fleming to his own terms could not be
doubted. The mortgage on the farm had only another year to run. The
land above the Blackpool would be taken possession of, or if this should
be hindered in any way, the land would be ruined by the building of the
new dam at the Varney place. What would Jacob Holt care for the
bringing of a lawsuit against him by a poor man like Mr Fleming after
the dam should be built and operations commenced?

True, it was the Gershom Manufacturing Company which was to decide as to
the site of the mills, and which would be called upon to pay all
damages. But how was that to help Mr Fleming? Within the memory of
the oldest inhabitant no enterprise commenced or carried on in Gershom
but had, at one point or mother in its course, felt the guiding or
restraining touch of a Holt, and so it was not easy for lookers-on in
general to put Jacob out of the question when the mind and will of the
future manufacturing company was under discussion.

It is not to be supposed that all this time Mr Maxwell had heard no
other version of this trouble than that which the squire and Miss
Elizabeth had given him. He had heard at least ten corresponding
generally to theirs as to facts, but differing in spirit and colouring
according to the view of the narrator. He had not as yet found it
necessary to commit himself to any expression of opinion with regard to
it. He listened gravely, and often with a troubled heart, doubting that
evil to the people he had learned to love might grow out of it. But he
listened always as though he were listening for the first time.

The matter could not be brought before him as pastor of the church, as
between Jacob Holt and Mr Fleming, for Mr Fleming was not a church
member. He still kept aloof, as did others of the elderly people of his
neighbourhood; and though Mr Maxwell had spoken with several of them as
to their duty