"Yes, he told me so himself; and it is that which weighs on him now. He broods and broods and mutters, and will not be comforted; and--and I do fear that he means revenge. And again, I implore you to keep out of his way." "It is not revenge on me that he thinks of. Suppose I go and am seen no more, do you think in your own heart that that girl's life is safe?" "What! My Tom kill a woman!" "Do you never read in your newspaper of a man who kills his sweetheart, or the girl who refuses to be his sweetheart? At all events, you yourself do not approve this frantic suit of his. If I have heard rightly, you have wished to get Tom out of the village for some time, till Jessie Wiles is--we'll say, married, or gone elsewhere for good." "Yes, indeed, I have wished and prayed for it many's the time, both for her sake and for his. And I am sure I don't know what we shall do if he stays, for he has been losing custom fast. The Squire has taken away his, and so have many of the farmers; and such a trade as it was in his good father's time! And if he would go, his uncle, the veterinary at Luscombe, would take him into partnership; for he has no son of his own, and he knows how clever Tom is: there be n't a man who knows more about horses; and cows, too, for the matter of that." "And if Luscombe is a large place, the business there must be more profitable than it can be here, even if Tom got back his custom?" "Oh yes! five times as good,--if he would but go; but he'll not hear of it." "Mrs. Bowles, I am very much obliged to you for your confidence, and I feel sure that all will end happily now we have had this talk. I'll not press further on you at present. Tom will not stir out, I suppose, till the evening." "Ah, sir, he seems as if he had no heart to stir out again, unless for something dreadful." "Courage! I will call again in the evening, and then you just take me up to Tom's room, and leave me there to make friends with him, as I have with you. Don't say a word about me in the meanwhile." "But--" "'But,' Mrs. Bowles, is a word that cools many a warm impulse, stifles many a kindly thought, puts a dead stop to many a brotherly deed. Nobody would ever love his neighbour as himself if he listened to all the Buts that could be said on the other side of the question." CHAPTER XV. KENELM now bent his way towards the parsonage, but just as he neared its glebe-lands he met a gentleman whose dress was so evidently clerical that he stopped and said,-- "Have I the honour to address Mr. Lethbridge?" "That is my name," said the clergyman, smiling pleasantly. "Anything I can do for you?" "Yes, a great deal, if you will let me talk to you about a few of your parishioners." "My parishioners! I beg your pardon, but you are quite a stranger to me, and, I should think, to the parish."