Mr.Meeke, on his side, when he got over his first shyness, was only too glad to leave his lonesome little parsonage for the fine music-room at the Hall, and for the company of a handsome, kind-hearted lady, who made much of him, and admired his fiddle-playing with all her heart.

Thus it happened that, whenever my master was away at sea, my mistress and Mr.Meeke were always together, playing duets as if they had their living to get by it.

A more harmless connection than the connection between those two never existed in this world; and yet, innocent as it was, it turned out to be the first cause of all the misfortunes that afterward happened.
My master's treatment of Mr.Meeke was, from the first, the very opposite of my mistress's.

The restless, rackety, bounceable Mr.James Smith felt a contempt for the weak, womanish, fiddling little parson, and, what was more, did not care to conceal it.

For this reason, Mr.
Meeke (who was dreadfully frightened by my master's violent language and rough ways) very seldom visited at the Hall except when my mistress was alone there.