came, as it were, transfigured,
the face of him shining, though he wist not of it.

Something of the spirit of the Crucified was poured forth that day upon
men and women humbly bowing their heads over the consecrated memorials
of His love.

A silence of a rare and peculiar sanctity filled the little bare,
deep-windowed kirk. The odour of the flowering lilacs came in like
Nature's own incense, and the plain folk of Eden Valley got a foretaste,
faint and dim, but sufficient, of the Land where the tables shall never
be withdrawn.

Better preachers than the Doctor?--We grant it you, though there are
many in the Valley who will not agree, but not one more fitted to break
the bread of communion before the white-spread tables.

It was Agnes Anne who opened the door of Marnhoul, and stood a moment
astonished at the sight of the Doctor all in black and silver--hat,
coat, knee-breeches, silken hose and leathern shoes of the first, locks,
studs, knee-buckles, shoe-buckles all of the second.

But our Agnes Anne was truly of the race of Mary Lyon, so in a moment
she said, "Pray come in, sir!" with the self-respect of the daughter of
a good house, as well as the dutifulness which she owed to one so
reverend and so revered.

The Doctor was not surprised. He smiled as he recognized the
school-master's daughter. But he betrayed nothing. He laid his hand as
usual on her smooth locks by way of a blessing, and inquired if Miss
Maitland and Sir Louis were at home.

"They are in the school-room," said Agnes Anne, in the most
business-like tone in the world; "come this way, sir."

It was a very different house--that which Agnes Anne showed the
Doctor--from the cobweb-draped, dust-strewn, deserted mansion of a few
weeks ago. Simply considering them as caretakers, the Dumfries lawyers
ought to have welcomed their new tenants. So far as cleanliness went,
Miss Irma had done a great deal--so much, indeed, as to earn the praise
of that severest of critics, my grandmother.

But there was much that no girl could do alone. Chair-seats and
sofa-cushions had been beaten till no speck of dust was left. This had
had to be carefully gone about. For though, apparently, no thieves had
broken through to steal, it was evident that the house had last been
occupied by people of excessively careless habits, who had put muddy
boots on chairs and trampled regardlessly everywhere. But the other half
of the text held good. Moth and rust had certainly corru