of the man he was going
to see on so very delicate a mission; but he did know that George
Brattle was prosperous, and that in early life he had been a good
son. His last interview with the farmer had had reference to the
matter of bail required for Sam, and on that occasion the brother
had, with some persuasion, done as he was asked. George Brattle had
contrived to win for himself a wife from the Fordingbridge side of
the country, who had had a little money; and as he, too, had carried
away from the mill a little money in his father's prosperous days,
he had done very well. He paid his rent to the day, owed no man
anything, and went to church every other Sunday, eschewing the bad
example set to him by his father in matters of religion. He was
hard-fisted, ignorant, and self-confident, knowing much about corn
and the grinding of it, knowing something of sheep and the shearing
of them, knowing also how to get the worth of his ten or eleven
shillings a week out of the bones of the rural labourers;--but
knowing very little else. Of all this Fenwick was aware; and, in
spite of that church-going twice a month, rated the son as inferior
to the father; for about the old miller there was a stubborn
constancy which almost amounted to heroism. With such a man as was
this George Brattle, how was he to preach a doctrine of true human
charity with any chance of success? But the man was one who was
pervious to ideas of duty, and might be probably pervious to feelings
of family respect. And he had been good to his father and mother,
regarding with something of true veneration the nest from which he
had sprung. The Vicar did not like the task before him, dreading the
disappointment which failure would produce; but he was not the man to
shrink from any work which he had resolved to undertake, and drove
gallantly into the farmyard, though he saw both the farmer and his
wife standing at the back-door of the house.

CHAPTER XLI.

STARTUP FARM.

Farmer Brattle, who was a stout man about thirty-eight years of age
but looking as though he were nearly ten years older, came up to the
Vicar, touching his hat, and then putting his hand out in greeting.

"This be a pleasure something like, Muster Fenwick, to see thee
here at Startup. This be my wife. Molly, thou has never seen Muster
Fenwick from Bull'umpton. This be our Vicar, as mother and Fanny says
is the pick of all the parsons in Wiltshire."

Then Mr. Fenwick got down, and walk