at any rate eminently respectable. He had three hunters, two grooms,
and a gig; and on Sundays went to church with a prayer-book in his
hand, and a black coat on his back. What more could be desired to
prove his respectability?

He had not been there a month before he was intimate in the parson's
house. Before two months had passed he was engaged to the parson's
daughter. Before the full quarter had flown by, he and the parson's
daughter were man and wife; and in five months from the time of his
first appearance in the Dorsetshire parish, he had flown from his
creditors, leaving behind him his three horses, his two grooms, his
gig, his wife, and his little boy.

The Dorsetshire neighbours, and especially the Dorsetshire ladies,
had at first been loud in their envious exclamations as to Miss
Wainwright's luck. The parson and the parson's wife, and poor Mary
Wainwright herself, had, according to the sayings of that moment
prevalent in the county, used most unjustifiable wiles in trapping
this poor rich stranger. Miss Wainwright, as they all declared, had
not clothes to her back when she went to him. The matter had been
got up and managed in most indecent hurry, so as to rob the poor
fellow of any chance of escape. And thus all manner of evil things
were said, in which envy of the bride and pity of the bridegroom
were equally commingled.

But when the sudden news came that Mr Talbot had bolted, and when
after a week's inquiry no one could tell whither Mr. Talbot had
gone, the objurgations of the neighbours were expressed in a
different tone. Then it was declared that Mr. Wainwright had
sacrificed his beautiful child without making any inquiry as to the