his discomfiture.
Mr. Brooke, the retired tradesman, did not cease blaming him for not
succeeding, and for swearing. "But what could you expect from a sailor?"
Mr. Brooke asked, even in my lady's hearing; though he might have known
Captain James was my lady's own personal choice, from the old friendship
Mr. Urian had always shown for him. I think it was this speech of the
Birmingham baker's that made my lady determine to stand by Captain James,
and encourage him to try again. For she would not allow that her choice
had been an unwise one, at the bidding (as it were) of a dissenting
tradesman; the only person in the neighbourhood, too, who had flaunted
about in coloured clothes, when all the world was in mourning for my
lady's only son.

Captain James would have thrown the agency up at once, if my lady had not
felt herself bound to justify the wisdom of her choice, by urging him to
stay. He was much touched by her confidence in him, and swore a great
oath, that the next year he would make the land such as it had never been
before for produce. It was not my lady's way to repeat anything she had
heard, especially to another person's disadvantage. So I don't think she
ever told Captain James of Mr. Brooke's speech about a sailor's being
likely to mismanage the property; and the captain was too anxious to
succeed in this, the second year of his trial, to be above going to the
flourishing, shrewd Mr. Brooke, and asking for his advice as to the best
method of working the estate. I dare say, if Miss Galindo had been as
intimate as formerly at the Hall, we should all of us have heard of this
new acquaintance of the agent's long before we did. As it was, I am sure
my lady never dreamed that the captain, who held opinions that were even
more Church and King than her own, could ever have made friends with a
Baptist baker from Birmingham, even to serve her ladyship's own interests
in the most loyal manner.

We heard of it first from Mr. Gray, who came now often to see my lady,
for neither he nor she could forget the solemn tie which the fact of his
being the person to acquaint her with my lord's death had created between
them. For true and holy words spoken at that time, though having no
reference to aught below the solemn subjects of life and death, had made
her withdraw her opposition to Mr. Gray's wish about establishing a
village school. She had sighed a little, it is true, and was even yet
more apprehensive than hop