ch he had undergone
in a land where the wind blows from all quarters at once; of rounds of
toast cut straight from the breadfruit trees; of toes bitten off by land-
crabs; of large honours that had been offered to him as a man who knew
what was what, and was therefore particularly needed in a tropical
climate; and of a Creole heiress who had wept bitterly at his departure.
Such conversational talents as these, we know, will overcome
disadvantages of complexion; and young Towers, whose cheeks were of the
finest pink, set off by a fringe of dark whisker, was quite eclipsed by
the presence of the sallow Mr. Freely. So exceptional a confectioner
elevated the business, and might well begin to make disengaged hearts
flutter a little.

Fathers and mothers were naturally more slow and cautious in their
recognition of the newcomer's merits.

"He's an amusing fellow," said Mr. Prettyman, the highly respectable
grocer. (Mrs. Prettyman was a Miss Fothergill, and her sister had
married a London mercer.) "He's an amusing fellow; and I've no objection
to his making one at the Oyster Club; but he's a bit too fond of riding
the high horse. He's uncommonly knowing, I'll allow; but how came he to
go to the Indies? I should like that answered. It's unnatural in a
confectioner. I'm not fond of people that have been beyond seas, if they
can't give a good account how they happened to go. When folks go so far
off, it's because they've got little credit nearer home--that's my
opinion. However, he's got some good rum; but I don't want to be hand
and glove with him, for all that."

It was this kind of dim suspicion which beclouded the view of Mr.
Freely's qualities in the maturer minds of Grimworth through the early
months of his residence there. But when the confectioner ceased to be a
novelty, the suspicions also ceased to be novel, and people got tired of
hinting at them, especially as they seemed to be refuted by his advancing
prosperity and importance. Mr. Freely was becoming a person of influence
in the parish; he was found useful as an overseer of the poor, having
great firmness in enduring other people's pain, which firmness, he said,
was due to his great benevolence; he always did what was good for people
in the end. Mr. Chaloner had even selected him as clergyman's
churchwarden, for he was a very handy man, and much more of Mr.
Chaloner's opinion in everything about church business than the older
parishioners. Mr. Freely