The fine gentleman looked up and scowled; the parson looked up and trembled; the ostler and his boy looked up and grinned.

Then all swept forward and were screened by the porch from the wondering eyes of Mr.Caryll.
He turned from the window with a sigh, and stepped back to the table for the tinder-box, that for the eleventh time he might relight his pipe.
He sat down, blew a cloud of smoke to the ceiling, and considered.

His nature triumphed now over his recent preoccupation; the matter of the moment, which concerned him not at all, engrossed him beyond any other matter of his life.

He was intrigued to know in what relation one to the other stood the three so oddly assorted travellers he had seen arrive.
He bethought him that, after all, the odd assortment arose from the presence of the parson; and he wondered what the plague should any Christian--and seemingly a gentleman at that--be doing travelling with a parson.

Then there was the wild speed at which they had come.
The matter absorbed and vexed him.