d at the
mill that afternoon. After their tea, at which the miller did not
make his appearance, Fanny Brattle put on her bonnet and ran across
the fields to the vicarage. After all the trouble that Mr. Fenwick
had taken, it was, she thought, necessary that he should be told what
had happened.

"That is the best news," said he, "that I have heard this many a
day."

"I knew that you would be glad to hear that the poor child has found
her home again." Then Fanny told the whole story,--how Carry had
escaped from Salisbury, being driven to do so by fear of the law
proceedings at which she had been summoned to attend, how her father
had sworn that he would not yield, and how at length he had yielded.
When Fanny told the Vicar and Mrs. Fenwick that the old man had as
yet not spoken to his daughter, they both desired her to be of good
cheer.

"That will come, Fanny," said Mrs. Fenwick, "if she once be allowed
to sit at table with him."

"Of course it will come," said the Vicar. "In a week or two you will
find that she is his favourite."

"She was the favourite with us all, sir, once," said Fanny, "and may
God send that it shall be so again. A winsome thing like her is made
to be loved. You'll come and see her, Mr. Fenwick, some day?" Mr.
Fenwick promised that he would, and Fanny returned to the mill.

The other circumstance was the arrival of Constable Toffy at the mill
during Fanny's absence. In the course of the day news had travelled
into the village that Carry Brattle was again at the mill;--and
Constable Toffy, who in regard to the Brattle family, was somewhat
discomfited by the transactions of the previous day at Heytesbury,
heard the news. He was aware,--being in that respect more capable
than Lord Trowbridge of receiving enlightenment,--that the result
of all the inquiries made, in regard to the murder, did, in truth,
contain no tittle of evidence against Sam. As constables go,
Constable Toffy was a good man, and he would be wronged if it were to
be said of him that he regretted Sam's escape; but his nature was as
is the nature of constables, and he could not rid himself of that
feeling of disappointment which always attends baffled efforts. And
though he saw that there was no evidence against Sam, he did not,
therefore, necessarily think that the young man was innocent. It may
be doubted whether, to the normal policeman's mind, any man is ever
altogether absolved of any crime with which that man's name has
be