"I don't believe he can do it," said Mrs. Fenwick, boiling with passion.
"He can, no doubt," said the Vicar.
"Do you mean to say the street is his;—to do what he likes with it?"
"The street is the Queen's highway,—which means that it belongs to the public; but this is not the street. I take it that all the land in the village belongs to the Marquis. I never knew of any common right, and I don't believe there is any."
"It is the meanest thing I ever heard of in my life," said Mrs. Fenwick.
"There I agree with you." Later in the day, when he had been thinking of it for hours, he again spoke to his wife. "I shall write to the Marquis and remonstrate. It will probably be of no avail; but I think I ought to do so for the sake of those who come after me. I shall be able to bother him a good deal, if I can do nothing else," he added, laughing. "I feel, too, that I must quarrel with somebody, and I won't quarrel with dear old Puddleham, if I can help it."
CHAPTER XXXV.
MR. PUDDLEHAM'S NEW CHAPEL.
