.
    »Hush Maggie, for shame of you, asking questions and chattering,« said her
mother. »Come and sit down on your little stool and hold your tongue, do. But,«
added Mrs. Tulliver, who had her own alarm awakened, »is it so far off as I
couldn't wash him and mend him?«
    »About fifteen miles, that's all,« said Mr. Riley. »You can drive there and
back in a day quite comfortably. Or - Stelling is a hospitable, pleasant man -
he'd be glad to have you stay.«
    »But it's too far off for the linen, I doubt,« said Mrs. Tulliver, sadly.
    The entrance of supper opportunely adjourned this difficulty, and relieved
Mr. Riley from the labour of suggesting some solution or compromise - a labour
which he would otherwise doubtless have undertaken; for, as you perceive, he was
a man of very obliging manners. And he had really given himself the trouble of
recommending Mr. Stelling to his friend Tulliver without any positive
expectation of a solid, definite advantage resulting to himself, notwithstanding
the subtle indications to the contrary which might have misled a too sagacious
observer. For there is nothing more widely misleading than sagacity if it
happens to get on a wrong scent; and sagacity, persuaded that men usually act
and speak from distinct motives, with a consciously proposed end in view, is
certain to waste its energies on imaginary game. Plotting covetousness, and
deliberate contrivance, in order to compass a selfish end, are nowhere abundant
but in the world of the dramatist: they demand too intense a mental action for
many of our fellow-parishioners to be guilty of them. It is easy enough to spoil
the lives of our neighbours without taking so much trouble: we can do it by lazy
acquiescence and lazy omission, by trivial falsities for which we hardly know a
reason, by small frauds neutralised by small extravagancies, by maladroit
flatteries, and clumsily improvised insinuations. We live from hand to mouth,
most of us, with a small family of immediate desires - we do little else than
snatch a morsel to satisfy the hungry brood, rarely thinking of seed-corn or the
next year's crop.
    Mr. Riley was a man of business, and not cold towards his own interest, yet
even he was more under the influence of small promptings than of far-sighted
designs. He had no private understanding with the Rev. Walter Stelling; on the
contrary he knew very little of that M.A. and his
