Under cover of the general laughter the gentlemen replenished their glasses, Mr. Pilgrim attempting to give his the character of a stirrup-cup by observing that he ‘must be going’.  Miss Gibbs seized this opportunity of telling Mrs. Hackit that she suspected Betty, the dairymaid, of frying the best bacon for the shepherd, when he sat up with her to ‘help brew’; whereupon Mrs. Hackit replied that she had always thought Betty false; and Mrs. Patten said there was no bacon stolen when she was able to manage.  Mr. Hackit, who often complained that he ’never saw the like to women with their maids—­he never had any trouble with his men’, avoided listening to this discussion, by raising the question of vetches with Mr. Pilgrim.  The stream of conversation had thus diverged:  and no more was said about the Rev. Amos Barton, who is the main object of interest to us just now.  So we may leave Cross Farm without waiting till Mrs. Hackit, resolutely donning her clogs and wrappings, renders it incumbent on Mr. Pilgrim also to fulfil his frequent threat of going.

Chapter 2

It was happy for the Rev. Amos Barton that he did not, like us, overhear the conversation recorded in the last chapter.  Indeed, what mortal is there of us, who would find his satisfaction enhanced by an opportunity of comparing the picture he presents to himself of his own doings, with the picture they make on the mental retina of his neighbours?  We are poor plants buoyed up by the air-vessels of our own conceit:  alas for us, if we get a few pinches that empty us of that windy self-subsistence!  The very capacity for good would go out of us.  For, tell the most impassioned orator, suddenly, that his wig is awry, or his shirt-lap hanging out, and that he is tickling people by the oddity of his person, instead of thrilling them by the energy of his periods, and you would infallibly dry up the spring of his eloquence.  That is a deep and wide saying, that no miracle can be wrought without faith—­without the worker’s faith in himself, as well as the recipient’s faith in him.  And the greater part of the worker’s faith in himself is made up of the faith that others believe in him.

Let me be persuaded that my neighbour Jenkins considers me a blockhead, and I shall never shine in conversation with him any more.  Let me discover that the lovely Phoebe thinks my squint intolerable, and I shall never be able to fix her blandly with my disengaged eye again.  Thank heaven, then, that a little illusion is left to us, to enable us to be useful and agreeable—­that we don’t know exactly what our friends think of us—­that the world is not made of looking-glass, to show us just the figure we are making, and just what is going on behind our backs!  By the help of dear friendly illusion, we are able to dream that we are charming and our faces wear a becoming air of self-possession; we are able to dream that other men admire our talents—­and our benignity