He despatched a second letter, confirming the first, and expressing some contrition at his behaviour to her.  But this rudeness he declared to have been the result of peculiarly distressing circumstances; and he assured her, that when the facts came to her ears, she would find no difficulty in forgiving him.

Their meeting was fixed for the following evening, and until it had taken place, Raymond told nobody of what had happened to him.  He went to work next morning, to learn indirectly whether Best had heard of his dismissal; but it seemed the foreman had not.  The circumstance cheered Raymond; he began to hope that his brother had changed his mind, and the possibility put him into a sanguine mood at once.  He found himself full of good resolutions; he believed that this might prove the turning point; he expected that Daniel would arrive at any moment and he was prepared frankly to express deep regret for his conduct if he did so.  But Daniel did not come.

Sabina constantly crossed Raymond’s mind, to be as constantly dismissed from it.  He was aware that something definite must be done; but he determined not even to consider the situation until he had seen his aunt.  A hopeful mood, for which no cause existed, somehow possessed him upon this day.  For no reason and spun of nothing in the least tangible, there grew around him an ambient intuition that he was going to get out of this fix with the help of Jenny Ironsyde.  The impression created a wave of generosity to Sabina.  He felt a large magnanimity.  He was prepared to do everything right and reasonable.  He felt that his aunt would approve the line he purposed to take.  She was practical, and he assured himself that she would not consent to pronounce the doom of marriage upon him.

In this sanguine spirit Raymond went to Bridport and dined at ’The Tiger’ before going to see his aunt at the appointed time.  And here there happened events to upset the level optimism that had ruled him all day.  Raymond had the little back-parlour to himself and Richard Gurd waited upon him.  They spoke of general subjects and then the older man became personal.

“If you’ll excuse me, Mister Raymond,” he said, “if you’ll excuse me, as one who’s known you ever since you went out of knickers, sir, I’d venture to warn you as a good friend, against a lot that’s being said in Bridetown and Bridport, too.  You know how rumours fly about.  But a good deal more’s being said behind your back than ought to be said; and you’ll do well to clear it up.  And by the same token, Mister Motyer’s opening his mouth the widest.  As for me, I got it from Job Legg over the way at ‘The Seven Stars’; and he got it from a young woman at Bridetown Mills, niece of Missis Northover.  So these things fly about.”

Raymond was aware that Richard Gurd held no puritan opinions.  He possessed tolerance and charity for all sorts and conditions, and left morals alone.

“And what did you do, Dick?  I should think you’d learned by this time to let the gossip of a public-house go in at one ear and out of the other.”