It was a relief to him when the coach rattled through Islington, and
in a few minutes had landed him at the 'Angel.'



CHAPTER VI



There was to be a grand entertainment in the assembly room of the
'Crown and Sceptre' in aid of the County Hospital. Mrs Martin, widow
of one of the late partners in the bank, lived in a large house near
Fenmarket, and still had an interest in the business. She was
distinctly above anybody who lived in the town, and she knew how to
show her superiority by venturing sometimes to do what her urban
neighbours could not possibly do. She had been known to carry
through the street a quart bottle of horse physic although it was
wrapped up in nothing but brown paper. On her way she met the
brewer's wife, who was more aggrieved than she was when Mrs Martin's
carriage swept past her in the dusty, narrow lane which led to the
Hall. Mrs Martin could also afford to recognise in a measure the
claims of education and talent. A gentleman came from London to
lecture in the town, and showed astonished Fenmarket an orrery and a
magic lantern with dissolving views of the Holy Land. The exhibition
had been provided in order to extinguish a debt incurred in repairing
the church, but the rector's wife, and the brewer's wife, after
consultation, decided that they must leave the lecturer to return to
his inn. Mrs Martin, however, invited him to supper. Of course she
knew Mr Hopgood well, and knew that he was no ordinary man. She knew
also something of Mrs Hopgood and the daughters, and that they were