o' em. And these were all over and
above the gentry and Sunday-clothes folk inside. Well, I seed Mr. Graye
at last dressed up quite the dand. "Well, Mr. Graye," says I from the
top o' church'ard wall, "how's yerself?" Mr. Graye never spoke--he'd
prided away his hearen. Seize the man, I didn' want en to spak. Teddy
hears it, and turns round: "All right, Gad!" says he, and laughed like a
boy. There's more in Teddy.'

'Well,' said Clerk Crickett, turning to the man in black, 'now you've
been among us so long, and d'know us so well, won't ye tell us what
ye've come here for, and what your trade is?'

'I am no trade,' said the thin man, smiling, 'and I came to see the
wickedness of the land.'

'I said thou wast one o' the devil's brood wi' thy black clothes,'
replied a sturdy ringer, who had not spoken before.

'No, the truth is,' said the thin man, retracting at this horrible
translation, 'I came for a walk because it is a fine evening.'

'Now let's be off, neighbours,' the clerk interrupted.

The candle was inverted in the socket, and the whole party stepped out
into the churchyard. The moon was shining within a day or two of full,
and just overlooked the three or four vast yews that stood on the
south-east side of the church, and rose in unvaried and flat darkness
against the illuminated atmosphere behind them.

'Good-night,' the clerk said to his comrades, when the door was locked.
'My nearest way is through the park.'

'I suppose mine is too?' said the stranger. 'I am going to the
railway-station.'

'Of course--come on.'

The two men went over a stile to the west, the remainder of the party
going into the road on the opposite side.

'And so the romance has ended well,' the clerk's companion remarked,
as they brushed along through the grass. 'But what is the truth of the
story about the property?'

'Now look here, neighbour,' said Clerk Crickett, 'if so be you'll tell
me what your line o' life is, and your purpose in comen here to-day,
I'll tell you the truth about the wedden particulars.'

'Very well--I will when you have done,' said the other man.

''Tis a bargain; and this is the right o' the story. When Miss
Aldclyffe's will was opened, it was found to have been drawn up on the
very day that Manston (her love-child) married Miss Cytherea Graye. And
this is what that deep woman did. Deep? she was as deep as the North
Star. She bequeathed all her property, real and personal, to "THE WIFE
OF AENEAS MAN