"She is only a farmer's grand-daughter.

We are nobody, you know." "But he is not of good character." "Oh, there is nothing more against him than there is against most young fellows.

He will reform and be steady.

Do you know anything special against him ?" asked the Vicar.
"Not actually against him; but just conceive, my dear friend, what a family to marry into! His father, I speak the plain truth, is a most disreputable, drunken old man, living in open sin with a gipsy woman of the worst character, by whom George Hawker has been brought up.

What an atmosphere of vice! The young fellow himself is universally disliked, and distrusted too, all over the village.