He is not a bad sort of man.' Laura asked if either Maumbry or some others of the officers did not give the presumptuous curate a good setting down for his interference.
'O well--we've forgotten that.

He's a stunning preacher, they tell me.' The acquaintance developed apparently, for the Captain said to her a little later on, 'There's a good deal in Sainway's argument about having no band on Sunday afternoons.

After all, it is close to his church.

But he doesn't press his objections unduly.' 'I am surprised to hear you defend him!' 'It was only a passing thought of mine.

We naturally don't wish to offend the inhabitants of the town if they don't like it.' 'But they do.' The invalid in the oriel never clearly gathered the details of progress in this conflict of lay and clerical opinion; but so it was that, to the disappointment of musicians, the grief of out-walking lovers, and the regret of the junior population of the town and country round, the band- playing on Sunday afternoons ceased in Casterbridge barrack-square.
By this time the Maumbrys had frequently listened to the preaching of the gentle if narrow-minded curate; for these light-natured, hit-or-miss, rackety people went to church like others for respectability's sake.