Indeed after hearing the story Mrs.Goddard had confided to his ears, nothing would have surprised the vicar.

After finding that so good, so upright and so honourable a woman as the fair tenant of the cottage could be put into such a singularly painful position as that in which she now found herself, it was not hard to imagine that this singular person who had inherited the Hall might also have some weighty reason for loving the solitude of Billingsfield.
To chronicle the small events which occurred in that Arcadian parish, would be to overstep the bounds of permissible tediousness.

In such places all events move slowly and take long to develop to their results.
The passions which in our own quickly moving world spring up, flourish, wither and are cut down in a month require, when they are not stimulated by the fertilising heat of artificial surroundings, a longer period for their growth; and when that growth is attained they are likely to be stronger and more deeply rooted.

It is not true that the study of them is less interesting, nor that they have less importance in themselves.

The difficulty of narrative is greater when they are to be described, for it is necessary to carry the imagination in a short time over a long period, to show how from small incidents great results follow, and to show also how the very limited and trivial nature of the surroundings may cause important things to be overlooked.