a popular character in Craddock. "Dear, dear,
she will be missed, she will, she was a real lady, she was; did her duty
too to rich _and_ poor."

The Professor asked his companion if she remarked that the amiable lady
was spoken of universally in the past tense, as some one who had passed
from the light of day.

Hadria laughed. "Whenever I am in a cynical mood I come to Craddock and
talk to the villagers."

Dodge was found resting on a broom-handle, with a flower in his
button-hole. Marion Jordan had supplied him with port wine when he was
"took bad" in the winter. Dodge found it of excellent quality. He
approved of the institution of landed property, and had a genuine regard
for the fair-haired, sweet-voiced girl who used to come in her pony-cart
to distribute her bounty to the villagers. Her class in the
Sunday-school, as he remarked, was always the best behaved.

The new schoolmistress, a sour and uncompromising looking person, had
issued from her cottage in her Sunday best to see the ceremony.

"That's where little Martha's mother used to live," said Hadria, "and
that is where she died."

"Indeed, yes. I think Mr. Walker pointed it out to me."

"Ah! of course, and then you know the village of old."

"'Ere they comes!" announced a chorus of children's voices, as the first
carriage drove up. The excitement was breathless. The occupants alighted
and made their way to the church. After that, the carriages came in
fairly quick succession. The bridegroom was criticised freely by the
crowd. They did not think him worthy of his bride. "They du say as it
was a made up thing," Dodge observed, "and that it wasn't _'im_ as she'd
like to go up to the altar with."

"Well, _I_ don't sort o' take to 'im neither," Mrs. Gullick observed,
sympathizing with the bride's feeling. "I do hope he'll be kind to the
pore young thing; that I do."

"She wouldn't never give it 'im back; she's that good," another woman
remarked.

"Who's the gentleman as she had set her heart on?" a romantic young
woman enquired.

"Oh, it's only wot they say," said Dodge judicially; "it's no use a
listening to all one hears--not by a long way."

"You 'ad it from Lord Engleton's coachman, didn't you?" prompted Mrs.
Gullick.

"Which he heard it said by the gardener at Mr. Jordan's, as Miss Marion
was always about with Mr. Fleming."

The murmur of interest at this announcement was drowned by the sound of
carriage wheels. The bride had come.

"Se