and between us we'll give those
poor dears a bit of cheer this Christmas."

From that moment the vicar was Mrs Grantly's slave.

Nobody knew how the affair leaked out, but the whole thing was known in
the village before a week had passed, with the result that fifteen
women visited the vicar, one after the other, and after much
circumlocution intimated that "If so be as 'e would be so kind, they'd
be glad if 'e'd 'int to the ladies as they 'adn't nearly wore out last
Christmas petticoat, and, if it were true wot they'd 'eard as they was
talkin' of givin' summat different, might Mrs Mustoe, Gegg, Uzzel, or
Radway, etc., have anything they did choose to make as warn't a
petticoat."

There was a slump in petticoats.

In despair he went to Mrs Grantly, and she undertook to see the matter
through.

"It's absurd," Mrs Grantly remarked to her daughter, "in a little place
like this where one knows all the people, and exactly what they're
like, to make things all the same size. Fancy me trying to get into a
blouse that would fit that skinny Miss Tibbits! A little common sense
is what's needed in this sewing society, and, Marjory, my dear, I'm
going to do my best to supply it."

* * * * * *

Throughout the years that followed, Mrs Grantly continued to supply
common sense to the inhabitants of Redmarley. She found places for
young servants, both in her own household and those of her friends,
till gradually there were many links between the village and "'Orse and
Field and Garrison."

More than one Redmarley damsel married a gunner "on the strength." Had
the intending bridegroom been anything else, Mrs Grantly would herself
have forbidden the banns!

CHAPTER XI

CHRISTMAS AT REDMARLEY

That year Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, and on the Saturday afternoon
Eloquent drove out from Marlehouse to Redmarley to spend the week-end
with his aunt. She was out when he arrived, and he went straight to
the vicarage, asked for the vicar, and was shown into the study, where
Mr Molyneaux sat smoking by the fire in a deep-seated high-backed chair.

Even as he entered the room, Eloquent was conscious of the pleasurable
thrill that things beautiful and harmonious never failed to evoke. The
windows faced west; the red sun, just sinking behind Redmarley Woods,
shone in on and was reflected from walls covered from floor to ceiling
with books; books bound for the most part in mellow brown and y