able wretch just
because this good purpose is carried on outside my own gate. Were it
in my dining-room, I ought to bear it without misery."

"I will strive to forget it," said his wife. And on the next morning,
which was Good Friday, she walked to church, round by the outside
gate, in order that she might give proof of her intention to keep her
promise to her husband. Her husband walked before her; and as she
went she looked round at her sister and shuddered and turned up her
nose. But this was involuntary.

In the mean time Mr. Quickenham was getting himself ready for his
walk to the mill. Any such investigation as this which he had on hand
was much more compatible with his idea of a holiday than attendance
for two hours at the Church Service. On Easter Sunday he would make
the sacrifice,--unless a headache, or pressing letters from London,
or Apollo in some other beneficent shape, might interfere and save
him from the necessity. Mr. Quickenham, when at home, would go to
church as seldom as was possible, so that he might save himself from
being put down as one who neglected public worship. Perhaps he was
about equal to Mr. George Brattle in his religious zeal. Mr. George
Brattle made a clear compromise with his own conscience. One good
Sunday against a Sunday that was not good left him, as he thought,
properly poised in his intended condition of human infirmity. It may
be doubted whether Mr. Quickenham's mind was equally philosophic on
the matter. He could hardly tell why he went to church, or why he
stayed away. But he was aware when he went of the presence of some
unsatisfactory feelings of imposture on his own part, and he was
equally alive, when he did not go, to a sting of conscience in that
he was neglecting a duty. But George Brattle had arranged it all in a
manner that was perfectly satisfactory to himself.

Mr. Quickenham had inquired the way, and took the path to the mill
along the river. He walked rapidly, with his nose in the air, as
though it was a manifest duty, now that he found himself in the
country, to get over as much ground as possible, and to refresh his
lungs thoroughly. He did not look much as he went at the running
river, or at the opening buds on the trees and hedges. When he met
a rustic loitering on the path, he examined the man unconsciously,
and could afterwards have described, with tolerable accuracy, how
he was dressed; and he had smiled as he had observed the amatory
pleasantness of