But now matters were on a much better footing, and all the parish rejoiced.  The new squire was seen in his pew every Sunday morning, and often entertained the parson at the house.  The rumour of this change was indeed so great that more than the truth reached the ears of some of the Boltons, and advantage was taken of it by those who desired to prove to Mrs. Bolton that the man was not a goat.  What more would she have?  He went regularly to morning and evening service,—­here it was that rumour exaggerated our hero’s virtues,—­did all his duty as a country gentleman, and was kind to his wife.  The Daniels, who were but lukewarm people, thought that Mrs. Bolton was bound to give way.  Mrs. Robert declared among her friends that the poor woman was becoming mad from religion, and the old banker himself was driven very hard for a reply when Robert asked him whether such a son-in-law as John Caldigate ought to be kept at arms’ length.  The old man did in truth hate the name of John Caldigate, and regretted bitterly the indiscretion of that day when the spendthrift had been admitted within his gates.  Though he had agreed to the marriage, partly from a sense of duty to his child, partly under the influences of his son, he had, since that, been subject to his wife for nine or ten months.  She had not been able to prevail against him in action; but no earthly power could stop her tongue.  Now when these new praises were dinned into his ears, when he did convince himself that, as far as worldly matters went, his son-in-law was likely to become a prosperous and respected gentleman, he would fain have let the question of hostility drop.  There need not have been much intercourse between Puritan Grange and Folking; but then also there need be no quarrel.  He was desirous that Caldigate should be allowed to come to the house, and that even visits of ceremony should be made to Folking.  But Mrs. Bolton would have nothing to do with such half friendship.  In the time that was coming she must be everything or nothing to her daughter.  And she could not be brought to think that one who had been so manifestly a goat should cease to be a goat so suddenly.  In other words, she could not soften her heart towards the man who had conquered her.  Therefore when the time came for the baby to be born there had been no reconciliation between Puritan Grange and Folking.

Mrs. Babington had been somewhat less stern.  Immediately on the return of the married couple to their own home she had still been full of wrath, and had predicted every kind of evil; but when she heard that all tongues were saying all good things of this nephew of hers, and when she was reminded by her husband that blood is thicker than water, and when she reflected that it is the duty of Christians to forgive injuries, she wrote to the sinner as follows:—­

    ’Babington hall, November 187-.