s triumph.

During the whole of that afternoon he said not a word of the
barrister's letter to any one. He struggled to banish the subject
from his thoughts. Failing to do that, he did banish it from his
tongue. The letter was in the pocket of his coat; but he showed it to
no one. Gilmore dined at the vicarage; but even to him he was silent.
Of course the conversation at dinner turned upon the chapel. It was
impossible that on such a day they should speak of anything else.
Even as they sat at their early dinner Mr. Puddleham's bell was
ringing, and no doubt there was a vigour in the pulling of it which
would not be maintained when the pulling of it should have become a
thing of every week. There had been a compact made, in accordance
with which the Vicar's wife was to be debarred from saying anything
against the chapel, and, no doubt, when the compact was made, the
understanding was that she should give over hating the chapel. This
had, of course, been found to be impossible, but in a certain way she
had complied with the compact. The noise of the bell however, was
considered to be beyond the compact, and on this occasion she was
almost violent in the expression of her wrath. Her husband listened
to her, and sat without rebuking her, silent, with the lawyer's
letter in his pocket. This bell had been put up on his own land, and
he could pull it down to-morrow. It had been put up by the express
agency of Lord Trowbridge, and with the direct view of annoying him;
and Lord Trowbridge had behaved to him in a manner which set all
Christian charity at defiance. He told himself plainly that he had no
desire to forgive Lord Trowbridge,--that life in this world, as it is
constituted, would not be compatible with such forgiveness,--that he
would not, indeed, desire to injure Lord Trowbridge otherwise than by
exacting such penalty as would force him and such as he to restrain
their tyranny; but that to forgive him, till he should have been so
forced, would be weak and injurious to the community. As to that, he
had quite made up his mind, in spite of all doctrine to the contrary.
Men in this world would have to go naked if they gave their coats
to the robbers who took their cloaks; and going naked is manifestly
inexpedient. His office of parish priest would be lowered in the
world if he forgave, out of hand, such offences as these which had
been committed against him by Lord Trowbridge. This he understood
clearly. And now he might