o write to him a most
affectionate letter, in which she said very little as to any evidence
that had reached her as to Roger's defection, but dilated at very
great length on the abominations of a certain lady who is supposed to
indulge in gorgeous colours.

He was troubled, too, about old Daniel Ruggles, the farmer at Sheep's
Acre, who had been so angry because his niece would not marry John
Crumb. Old Ruggles, when abandoned by Ruby and accused by his
neighbours of personal cruelty to the girl, had taken freely to that
source of consolation which he found to be most easily within his
reach. Since Ruby had gone he had been drunk every day, and was making
himself generally a scandal and a nuisance. His landlord had
interfered with his usual kindness, and the old man had always
declared that his niece and John Crumb were the cause of it all; for
now, in his maudlin misery, he attributed as much blame to the lover
as he did to the girl. John Crumb wasn't in earnest. If he had been in
earnest he would have gone after her to London at once. No;--he wouldn't
invite Ruby to come back. If Ruby would come back, repentant, full of
sorrow,--and hadn't been and made a fool of herself in the meantime,--
then he'd think of taking her back. In the meantime, with circumstances
in their present condition, he evidently thought that he could best face
the difficulties of the world by an unfaltering adhesion to gin, early
in the day and all day long. This, too, was a grievance to Roger
Carbury.

But he did not neglect his work, the chief of which at the present
moment was the care of the farm which he kept in his own hands. He was
making hay at this time in certain meadows down by the river side; and
was standing by while the men were loading a cart, when he saw John
Crumb approaching across the field. He had not seen John since the
eventful journey to London; nor had he seen him in London; but he knew
well all that had occurred,--how the dealer in pollard had thrashed his
cousin, Sir Felix, how he had been locked up by the police and then
liberated,--and how he was now regarded in Bungay as a hero, as far as
arms were concerned, but as being very 'soft' in the matter of love.
The reader need hardly be told that Roger was not at all disposed to
quarrel with Mr Crumb, because the victim of Crumb's heroism had been
his own cousin. Crumb had acted well, and had never said a word about
Sir Felix since his return to the country. No doubt he h