"So Ralph's brains are of great use, after all;" she said.
"He is thrown away at Fair Acres. Harry says so, and I don't think it is fair or just. I never could get over Melville's horrid selfishness, and I don't wish to get over it."
"Piers!" Joyce said, reproachfully; "remember he is your brother."
"We have all good cause to remember it," was the muttered rejoinder.
And now, as they passed through the villages nearer Bristol, large knots of people were congregated here and there. Some stared at the carriage as they passed, some hissed, and angry voices cried:
"No Popery!" and "Reform!"
When within some four miles of the city, Susan Priday leaned over and said:
"There is a great crowd coming on behind us, ma'am; they look a very rough lot."
The carriage was going up a steep hill, and just as it had slowly reached the top, some fifty or sixty men came out from a lane, which turned off towards Bath, and called out to the post-boy to stop.
They were fierce, wild-looking men, and, as the post-boy tried to take no notice and whip on his horses, the bridles were seized and the carriage was surrounded.