But I have been once more wandering from my subject.

Thus it was that the people in the village lying close to my door attracted most of my attention at first; of which attention those more immediately associated with the village, as, for instance, the inhabitants of the Hall, came in for a share, although they did not belong to the same class.

Again, the houses of most of the gentlefolk lay considerably apart from the church and from each other.  Many of them went elsewhere to church, and I did not feel bound to visit those, for I had enough to occupy me without, and had little chance of getting a hold of them to do them good.  Still there were one or two families which I would have visited oftener, I confess, had I been more interested in them, or had I had a horse.  Therefore, I ought to have bought a horse sooner than I did.  Before this winter was over, however, I did buy one, partly to please Dr Duncan, who urged me to it for the sake of my health, partly because I could then do my duty better, and partly, I confess, from having been very fond of an old mare of my father’s, when I was a boy, living, after my mother’s death, at a farm of his in B—­shire.  Happening to come across a gray mare very much like her, I bought her at once.

I think it was the very day after the events recorded in my last chapter that I mounted her to pay a visit to two rich maiden ladies, whose carriage stopped at the Lych-gate most Sundays when the weather was favourable, but whom I had called upon only once since I came to the parish.  I should not have thought this visit worth mentioning, except for the conversation I had with them, during which a hint or two were dropped which had an influence in colouring my thoughts for some time after.

I was shown with much ceremony by a butler, as old apparently as his livery of yellow and green, into the presence of the two ladies, one of whom sat in state reading a volume of the Spectator.  She was very tall, and as square as the straight long-backed chair upon which she sat.  A fat asthmatic poodle lay at her feet upon the hearth-rug.  The other, a little lively gray-haired creature, who looked like a most ancient girl whom no power of gathering years would ever make old, was standing upon a high chair, making love to a demoniacal-looking cockatoo in a gilded cage.  As I entered the room, the latter all but jumped from her perch with a merry though wavering laugh, and advanced to meet me.

“Jonathan, bring the cake and wine,” she cried to the retreating servant.

The former rose with a solemn stiff-backedness, which was more amusing than dignified, and extended her hand as I approached her, without moving from her place.

“We were afraid, Mr Walton,” said the little lady, “that you had forgotten we were parishioners of yours.”

“That I could hardly do,” I answered, “seeing you are such regular attendants at church.  But I confess I have given you ground for your rebuke, Miss Crowther.  I bought a horse, however, the other day, and this is the first use I have put him to.”