Before they had gone far they came upon the vicar, arrayed in an old coat, his hands thrust into a pair of gigantic gardening gloves and a battered old felt hat upon his head.

Mrs.Goddard had felt rather uncomfortable in the impressive society of Mrs.Ambrose and the sight of the vicar's genial face was reassuring in the extreme.

She was not disappointed, for he immediately relieved the situation by asking all manner of kindly questions, interspersed with remarks upon his garden, while Mrs.Ambrose introduced little Nellie to the acquaintance of Carlo who had not seen so pretty a little girl for many a day, and capered and wagged his feathery tail in a manner most unseemly for so clerical a dog.
So it came about that Mrs.Goddard established herself at Billingsfield and made her first visit to the vicarage.

After that the ice was broken and things went on smoothly enough.

Mrs.Ambrose's hints concerning foreign blood, and her husband's invariable remonstrance to the effect that she ought to be more charitable, grew more and more rare as time went on, and finally ceased altogether.