It was soon arranged that young Joe, Hannah’s sweetheart, should accompany his prospective mother-in-law to Town, and convey the two women safely back again to Settlefield. Joseph Brushwood, the younger, was not a bad fellow for his station in life. His parents were well-to-do farmers, and the young man’s prospects were as bright as he had any right to expect. He was good-looking, too, in his countrified fashion, with bold black eyes and a thick bush of curling hair, and a ruddy complexion--a “follower” of whom any girl, like Hannah Stubbs, might have been proud, and for having attracted whom, she was much envied in the neighbourhood of Settlefield. But Joe had been brought up “pious”, and stuck to the Bible as his rule in all perplexities of life. He was like many other people in this world. He called himself a Christian, yet possessed not one virtue of the Great Lover of mankind. He did not regard the Almighty as a reality--he only knew Him through the Bible. He never prayed from his heart, nor because he felt the actual necessity of prayer. But he went to church every Sunday afternoon, because he had been reared to consider it his duty. He sat there, with his Sunday clothes on,--his dark hair well-oiled, and a bright blue or crimson tie beneath his turned-down collar, and all the young women thought how nice Joe Brushwood looked and wondered what he could see in that stout, awkward Hannah Stubbs to take his fancy. And Joe slumbered through the greater part of the service, and returned home with the comfortable feeling that he had performed his weekly duty, and was a pattern Christian. He was the sort of bucolic ignoramus, who would be more “down” upon anything which was Greek to him, than any other man. He had no humility, though he had a good deal of rough good humour. He was flattered by Hannah’s undoubted affection for himself, but he did not care enough for her to give up anything for her sake. He dressed himself in his smartest clothes to go to London with Mrs. Stubbs, though she told him as little as she could of her errand. They arrived in Soho about five o’clock, and presented themselves at Mrs. Battleby’s door. They were received by the landlady herself. “O! there, I _am_ glad to see you!” she exclaimed; “come in, do, and sit down and have your tea. Hannah has just gone on an errand for me, but she’ll be back in a jiffey. O! Mrs. Stubbs, ma’am, she ’ave give me sich a scare!” “Well! I’m sure your letter give _me_ a scare, Mrs. Battleby,” replied the visitor, as she settled herself in a chair, “and me and this gentleman, which he is my Hannah’s young man, started off as quick as we could to ’ear the rights and wrongs of it!” “Lor! is this ’er sweetheart?” interposed Mrs. Battleby admiringly, “well, she have an inducement to keep straight, if any gal on hearth ’ave!” Joe settled his collar and tie and looked conscious of the compliment, as Mrs. Stubbs proceeded: