Indeed he wass nevver used to be like this whatever; 'tis ever since his brother John die, and leave all his money to Valmai." "You must try to call her Mrs.Caradoc Wynne now, Shoni," said the Vicar, with a smile.
"Yes, indeed, sir," said Shoni, quickly thawing; "there's nobody in Abersethin but won't be glad to see Val--Mrs.Wynne home again; it bin very dull here without her, ever since she gone away." Meanwhile Mrs.Wynne had knocked at the door and had been confronted by Essec Powell himself, who presented such an extraordinary appearance that she had some difficulty in composing her face to a proper degree of gravity.

His trousers of brown cloth, burnt at the knees into a green hue, were turned up above each ankle, exhibiting his blue woollen stockings and a tattered pair of black cloth shoes, his coat was of black cloth, very much frayed at the collar and cuffs, his white hair flew about in all directions, as the draught from the back door swirled in when the front door was opened.

He had his finger in the leaves of an old book, and with a far-away look in his blue eyes, all he could say was a bewildered, "Eh!" "The Vicar is coming to see you, Mr.Powell--" "What Vicar?
What, the 'Vicare du' ?" and at this moment the Vicar appeared, and held out his hand.
Essec Powell stared in astonishment, and carefully exchanging his book from his right to his left hand, and glancing to see that his finger was on the right passage, he rather ungraciously shook hands with his visitor.
"Well," he said, "there's a thing I never thought I would do in this world." "Oh, well, come," said Lewis Wynne's jovial voice.

"You meant to do it in the next world evidently, so we may as well begin here." "Will you come in ?" and the old man awkwardly ushered them into the little back parlour, which Valmai's busy fingers had transformed from its original bareness into a cosy home-room.
"Oh, what a dear little room," said Mrs.Wynne as she entered.
The table was littered with books and papers, a gleam of sunlight shining through the crimson curtains giving a warm glow to the whole room.
"Yes," said Essec Powell, looking round with the air of a stranger, "it has nice bookshelves, and a nice light for reading; but I miss that girl shocking, shocking," he repeated; "got to look out for every passage now, and I was used to her somehow, you see; and I haven't got anybody else, and I wish in my heart she would come back again." "That, I am afraid," said the Vicar, "can never be; perhaps both you and I, Mr.Powell, have forgotten too much that, while we are going down the stream of life, the young people are going up, and are building their own hopes and interests; and I called to-day to see whether we could not agree--you and I--to think more of the young people's happiness for the future, and less of our own ease or our own sorrows." "It's very well for you to talk," said Essec Powell.

"You are a rich man--I am poor; everything you see here belongs to Shoni, and it is very hard that Valmai should have all my brother's money, and I be left with none." "I think it is hard," said Mr.Lewis Wynne, "and as my nephew will be a very wealthy man, I am certain that he and his wife will be willing to pay you every year the amount which you lost by your brother's will." "You think that ?" said Essec Powell; "150 pounds a year--you think they would give me that ?" "I am sure they would; in fact, I can give you my word for it." "Well, indeed," he said, laying his book upside down carefully on the table, "that will make me a happy man.