drank a glass of beer with his Sunday dinner;
indeed, the arrival of the malt of which his wife and daughter also
partook, was a part of Sunday observance, while on birthdays and other
anniversaries wine or toddy made their appearance. But extreme
regularity and temperance in all things was a strong feature of his
character, and he was therefore exceedingly jealous of the honour and
good moral standing of the village, and the harbouring of Angeel had
been for a long time a matter involving much worry. At the picnic
Ringfield's ill-timed allusion to "sinners" had hurt him most
particularly, and the more he thought of it the more he grew convinced
that the minister could throw some light on the origin of the child and
the manner in which it had come to be living at Hawthorne; for up to
the present time almost complete ignorance prevailed. This was in
itself extraordinary since the area was so small and the population so
settled, but shrewd guessers were nearly hitting the mark when they
supposed, from certain memories, inferences, and coincidences, that the
child belonged to Miss Clairville, and this was precisely the point
which offended the store-keeper; had the affair originated in his own
parish, no matter how disreputably, he would have guarded the secret,
striven to make the best of it, or, if the case abounded in direct
violations of morality by those above him in station, all the more he
would have preserved an absolutely rigid silence. His contention
was--that the business belonged to some other parish, probably that of
St. Ignace, and that when strangers, ignorant of this, visited
Hawthorne, they took it for granted that Angeel was part of the
village, thus bringing undeserved slur and unmerited obloquy upon an
innocent community, and he took advantage of the concert to ask for a
few words with Ringfield. The latter had just been compelled to
witness the desertion of Pauline as she went off with Crabbe and Miss
Cordova when he turned to find Enderby waiting to speak to him.
Poussette had withdrawn.

"I hardly know, sir, just how I ought to introduce the subject," said
the butcher, in his loftiest manner, eyeing the minister up and down.
"For I have hardly ever spoke to a clergyman of your denomination
before."

Ringfield with a somewhat constrained smile assured the speaker that he
was mortal and fairly rational, although he was a Methodist.

"Yes, of course, I know that, and there is those who might ha