Reading the Epistle to the Hebrews in Greek the two boys Joshua and Cornelius are interrupted by their drunken father who used to be a respectable millwright but has become an alcoholic.
Joshua Halborough Senior used all the 900 pounds left for his two sons by their mother, who had previously died, for drinking.
This left the boys unable to go to Oxford University, as their mother had planned, so they study in a training college for schoolmasters, where they get scholarships.
Joshua is mortified by this incident and decides to raise enough money to send his father and supposed stepmother away to Canada.
Joshua, who is ordained by now, greatly impresses the congregation at Narrowbourne when he officiates the first time and is asked to dine with the local landowning Fellmer family.
Rosa is not yet formally engaged to the Squire and the brothers fear that their father's inopportune return will ruin everything just when Mrs Fellmer has been brought round to approving the marriage.
The day before his release date the father has written to Cornelius stating his intention of coming to Narrowbourne to visit his daughter who he has heard will be making an advantageous marriage.
Their sister comes to visit and tells them that on the night of her engagement she heard someone calling her name and wonders whether it had anything to do with the unfortunate man who had drowned in the weir.
In his younger days he had some charm, as he managed to persuade the mother of his children into a relationship with him prior to marriage, as a result of which Joshua was in fact born illegitimate.
She was clearly a woman of character, stinting herself to save up enough to send her sons to University, sadly all to no avail because of her death before this could be fulfilled.
The brothers bitterly resent the loss of opportunity resulting from their father frittering away this money which means they have to qualify the hard way, by first becoming pupil teachers and then being accepted into theological college.
Joshua is extremely focused on bettering his lot and that of his siblings; he puts himself under considerable privations to obtain an education for his sister.
Although Joshua is an inspiring preacher it is notable that one never once sees him praying for guidance as to how to deal with the perennial problem of his father.
At the same time she is clearly a nice girl, not at all calculating, and will be a good stepmother to the widowed squire's daughter.
However, lurking in the background is a sense that knowledge of the dark family secrets may come out - she has heard her father's drowning cries, although not realising it was him, and Cornelius feels impelled to tell her the truth.