Finding, on looking at his watch, that it was necessary to start at
once if he meant to see her that night, the parson cut short the
practising, and, naming another night for meeting, he withdrew. All
the singers assisted him on to his cob, and watched him till he
disappeared over the edge of the Bottom.



III

Mr. Torkingham trotted briskly onward to his house, a distance of
about a mile, each cottage, as it revealed its half-buried position
by its single light, appearing like a one-eyed night creature
watching him from an ambush. Leaving his horse at the parsonage he
performed the remainder of the journey on foot, crossing the park
towards Welland House by a stile and path, till he struck into the
drive near the north door of the mansion.

This drive, it may be remarked, was also the common highway to the
lower village, and hence Lady Constantine's residence and park, as
is occasionally the case with old-fashioned manors, possessed none
of the exclusiveness found in some aristocratic settlements. The
parishioners looked upon the park avenue as their natural
thoroughfare, particularly for christenings, weddings, and funerals,
which passed the squire's mansion with due considerations as to the
scenic effect of the same from the manor windows. Hence the house
of Constantine, when going out from its breakfast, had been
continually crossed on the doorstep for the last two hundred years
by the houses of Hodge and Giles in full cry to dinner. At present
these collisions were but too infrequent, for though the villagers