How did Mrs. Baines know so soon that Lucy and Roger had returned to England and come down to see the Joslings at Church Farm? Why, because the miller of Aldermaston saw the Brenthams arrive at Aldermaston station and witnessed the greeting of Farmer Josling—such a fine upstanding man—and his son-in-law—just such another, only rather sallow-like and thin; and the miller told old Mrs. Bunsby of the general shop at Theale; and Mrs. Bunsby, wanting badly a supply of ginger beer, for the weather was getting warm and Oxford undergraduates sometimes pushed their walking tours as far as the Kennet Valley—Mrs. Bunsby walked over to _John Baines & Co._ that very afternoon to give an order for four dozen and mentioned the fact of "pore Master John’s widow" having come back to her home "with a noo ’usband." The assistant who registered the order for delivery in their next round, after Mrs. Bunsby left slipped into Mr. Baines’s "libery," and half-whispered the news of Lucy’s return. When, soon afterwards, Mrs. Baines came into the dining-room to preside over the tea table, he—(he looked very aged—my astral body floating over the scene felt a twinge of pity for him; in his own dull way he had been fond and proud of his only son and worked to provide him with a competency—some day)—he, with some preparatory clearing of the throat, said: "Er ... Hrhm.... Er ... Lucy’s back, I hear...." "Indeed?" replied his wife swiftly. "Where? Bridewell? That’s where she _ought_ to be...." "I dare say, my dear, but she’s at Church Farm, her parents’, you know.... P’raps she could tell you something about John?..." "P’raps she could. But I won’t have her name mentioned in _this_ house. _Do you understand_?" Mr. Baines did, and took this intimation as final. The next day was Sunday. Mrs. Baines spent much of the day (as she had decided she could not go to chapel) communing in prayer with her Maker in the bedroom fastness. Some of the prayers heard by the frightened Eliza through the keyhole sounded more like objurgations, and the Scripture readings were the minatory passage directed by the Minor Prophets against harlots and light women.