the thing only
the day before yesterday, which doesn't look as though it had been
frightening him."

"Well, he won't repeat the offer, Alan, for I heard him promise my uncle
only this morning that it should be sent back to Yarleys at once. But
why did he want to buy it for such a lot of money? Tell me quickly,
Alan, I am dying to hear the whole story."

So he began and told her, omitting nothing, while she listened eagerly
to every word, hardly interrupting him at all. As he finished his tale
they reached the door of the quaint old village church just as the clock
was striking eleven.

"Come in, Alan," she said gently, "and thank Heaven for all its mercies,
for you should be a grateful man to-day."

Then without giving him time to answer she entered the church and they
took their places in the great square pew that for generations had been
occupied by the owners of the ancient house which Mr. Haswell pulled
down when he built The Court. There were their monuments upon the
wall and their gravestones in the chancel floor. But now no one except
Barbara ever sat in their pew; even the benches set aside for the
servants were empty, for those who frequented The Court were not
church-goers and "like master, like man." Indeed the gentle-faced old
clergyman looked quite pleased and surprised when he saw two inhabitants
of that palatial residence amongst his congregation, although it is true
that Barbara was his friend and helper.

The simple service went on; the first lesson was read. It cried woe upon
them that joined house to house and field to field, that draw iniquity
with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope; that call evil
good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness,
that justify the wicked for reward; that feast full but regard not the
work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hand, for of
such it prophesied that their houses great and fair should be without
inhabitant and desolate.

It was very well read, and Alan, listening, thought that the
denunciations of the old seer of thousands of years ago were not
inappropriate to the dwellers in some houses great and fair of his own
day, who, whatever they did or left undone, regarded not the work of
the Lord, neither considered the operation of His hand. Perhaps Barbara
thought so too; at any rate a rather sad little smile appeared once or
twice upon her sweet, firm face as the immortal poem echoed down the
aisle.