nonsense, he said, about the man's evil looks. But this was spoken
of in the village as the random talk of youth, "as if it was only
Mr. Snell who had seen something odd about the pedlar!" On the
contrary, there were at least half-a-dozen who were ready to go
before Justice Malam, and give in much more striking testimony than
any the landlord could furnish. It was to be hoped Mr. Godfrey
would not go to Tarley and throw cold water on what Mr. Snell said
there, and so prevent the justice from drawing up a warrant. He was
suspected of intending this, when, after mid-day, he was seen
setting off on horseback in the direction of Tarley.

But by this time Godfrey's interest in the robbery had faded before
his growing anxiety about Dunstan and Wildfire, and he was going,
not to Tarley, but to Batherley, unable to rest in uncertainty about
them any longer. The possibility that Dunstan had played him the
ugly trick of riding away with Wildfire, to return at the end of a
month, when he had gambled away or otherwise squandered the price of
the horse, was a fear that urged itself upon him more, even, than
the thought of an accidental injury; and now that the dance at
Mrs. Osgood's was past, he was irritated with himself that he had
trusted his horse to Dunstan. Instead of trying to still his fears,
he encouraged them, with that superstitious impression which clings
to us all, that if we expect evil very strongly it is the less
likely to come; and when he heard a horse approaching at a trot, and
saw a hat rising above a hedge beyond an angle of the lane, he felt
as if his conjuration had succeeded. But no sooner did the horse
come within sight, than his heart sank again. It was not Wildfire;
and in a few moments more he discerned that the rider was not
Dunstan, but Bryce, who pulled up to speak, with a face that implied
something disagreeable.