talk now--I'll explain all
to you--don't think very badly of me, Katie--God bless you!" with
which words he strode away, while she looked after him with
increasing wonder, and then turned and went into the lodge.

He hastened away from the Rectory and down the village street,
taking the road home mechanically, but otherwise wholly
unconscious of roads and men. David, who was very anxious to
speak to him about Harry, stood at his door making signs to him
to stop, in vain; and then gave chase, calling out after him,
till he saw that all attempts to attract his notice were useless,
and so ambled back to his shop-board much troubled in mind.

The first object which recalled Tom at all to himself was the
little white cottage looking out of Englebourn copse towards the
village, in which he had sat by poor Betty's death-bed. The
garden was already getting wild and tangled, and the house seemed
uninhabited. He stopped for a moment and looked at it with bitter
searchings of heart. Here was the place where he had taken such a
good turn, as he had fondly hoped--in connection with the then
inmates of which he had made the strongest good resolutions he
had ever made in his life perhaps. What was the good of his
trying to befriend anybody? His friendship turned to a blight;
whatever he had as yet tried to do for Harry had only injured
him, and now how did they stand? Could they ever be friends again
after that day's discovery? To do him justice, the probable ruin
of all his own prospects, the sudden coldness of Mr. and Mrs.
Porter's looks, and Mary's averted face, were not the things he
thought of first, and did not trouble him most. He thought of
Harry, and shuddered at the wrong he had done him as he looked at
his deserted home. The door opened and a figure appeared. It was
Mr. Wurley's agent, the lawyer who had been employed by Farmer
Tester in his contest with Harry and his mates about the pound.
The man of law saluted him with a smirk of scarcely concealed
triumph, and then turned into the house again and shut the door,
as if he did not consider further communication necessary or
safe. Tom turned with a muttered imprecation on him and his
master, and hurried away along the lane which led to the heath.
The Hawk's Lynch lay above him, and he climbed the side
mechanically and sat himself again on the old spot.

He sat for some time looking over the landscape, graven on his
mind as it was by his former visit, and bitterly, oh,