r, and waited for her some
ten minutes in the little churchyard which was a vivid green with the
Christmas rains. The day was clear and curiously soft for the season,
even on the Marsh where the winters are usually mild. The sky was a
delicate blue, washed with queer, flat clouds--the whole country of the
Marsh seemed faintly luminous, holding the sunshine in its greens and
browns. Beside the dyke which flows by Brodnyx village stood a big thorn
tree, still bright with haws. It made a vivid red patch in the
foreground, the one touch of Christmas in a landscape which otherwise
suggested October--especially in the sunshine, which poured in a warm
shower on to the altar-tomb where Martin sat.

He grew dreamy with waiting--his thoughts seemed to melt into the
softness of the day, to be part of the still air and misty sunshine,
just as the triple-barned church with its grotesque tower was part....
He could feel the great Marsh stretching round him, the lonely miles of
Walland and Dunge and Romney, once the sea's bed, now lately inned for
man and his small dwellings, his keepings and his cares, perhaps one day
to return to the same deep from which it had come. People said that the
bells of Broomhill church--drowned in the great floods which had changed
the Rother's mouth--still rang under the sea. If the sea came to
Brodnyx, would Brodnyx bells ring on?--And Pedlinge? And Brenzett? And
Fairfield? And all the little churches of Thomas a Becket on their
mounds?--What a ringing there would be.

He woke out of his daydream at the sound of footsteps--the people were
coming out, and glancing up he saw Joanna a few yards off. She looked
surprised to see him, but also she made no attempt to hide her pleasure.

"Mr. Trevor! You here?"

"I came over to Ansdore to wish you a happy Christmas, and they told me
you were still in church."

"Yes--I stopped for Communion--" her mouth fell into a serious,
reminiscent line, "you didn't come to the first service, neither?"

"No, my brother's at home, and he took charge of my father's spiritual
welfare--they went off to church at Udimore, and I was too lazy to
follow them."

"I'm sorry you didn't come here--they used my harmonium, and it was
valiant."

He smiled at her adjective.

"I'll come another day and hear your valiant harmonium. I suppose you
think everybody should go to church?"

"My father went, and I reckon I'll keep on going."

"You always do as your father did?"

"In m