she, Mary
Lowther, to suppose that she could have any of the same pleasure?
Janet Balfour, in her first visit to the vicarage, had been to see
the home in which she was to live with the man to whom her whole
heart had been given without reserve.

CHAPTER LI.

THE GRINDER AND HIS COMRADE.

As the day drew near for the final examination at Heytesbury of the
suspected murderers,--the day on which it was expected that either
all the three prisoners, or at least two of them, would be committed
to take their trial at the summer assizes, the Vicar became anxious
as to the appearance of Carry Brattle in the Court. At first he
entertained an idea that he would go over to Salisbury and fetch her;
but his wife declared that this was imprudent and Quixotic,--and
that he shouldn't do it. Fenwick's argument in support of his own
idea amounted to little more than this,--that he would go for the
girl because the Marquis of Trowbridge would be sure to condemn
him for taking such a step. "It is intolerable to me," he said,
"that I should be impeded in my free action by the interference and
accusations of such an ass as that." But the question was one on
which his wife felt herself to be so strong that she would not yield,
either to his logic or to his anger. "It can't be fit for you to go
about and fetch witnesses; and it won't make it more fit because
she is a pretty young woman who has lost her character." "Honi soit
qui mal y pense," said the Vicar. But his wife was resolute, and he
gave up the plan. He wrote, however, to the constable at Salisbury,
begging the man to look to the young woman's comfort, and offering to
pay for any special privilege or accommodation that might be accorded
to her. This occurred on the Saturday before the day on which Mary
Lowther was taken up to look at her new home.

The Sunday passed by, with more or less of conversation respecting
the murder; and so also the Monday morning. The Vicar had himself
been summoned to give his evidence as to having found Sam Brattle
in his own garden, in company with another man with whom he had
wrestled, and whom he was able to substantiate as the Grinder; and,
indeed, the terrible bruise made by the Vicar's life-preserver on
the Grinder's back, would be proved by evidence from Lavington. On
the Monday evening he was sitting, after dinner, with Gilmore, who
had dined at the vicarage, when he was told that a constable from
Salisbury wished to see him. The con