onses mounting up to the raftered roof had a curious effect, and
seemed to be the voice of the old church itself, paying its tribute to
the unseen mysteries of the long ages of faith.

On the north side of the chancel, which was two steps higher than the
nave, was the Squire's pew. Its occupants were shielded from the gaze of
those in the body of the church by a faded red curtain hung on an iron
rail, but the Squire always drew it boldly aside during the exhortation
and surveyed the congregation, the greater part of which was dependent
on him for a livelihood and attended church as an undergraduate "keeps
chapels," for fear of unpleasant consequences.

The Squire's pew occupied the whole of the space usually devoted to the
organ and the vestry in modern built churches, and had a separate
entrance from the churchyard. It had a wooden floor, upon which was a
worn blue carpet sprinkled with yellow fleurs de lis. The big hassocks
and the seat that ran along the north wall were covered with the same
material. In front of the fixed bench was a row of heavy chairs; in the
wall opposite to the curtain was a fireplace. Mrs. Clinton occupied the
chair nearest to the fire, which was always lit early on Sunday morning
in the winter, but owing partly to the out-of-date fashion of the grate
and partly to the height and extent of the church, gave no more heat
than was comfortable to those immediately within its radius, and none at
all to those a little way from it. The Squire himself remained outside
its grateful influence. His large, healthy frame, well covered with
flesh, enabled him to dispense with artificial warmth during his hour
and a half's occupation of the family pew, and also to do his duty by
using the last of the row of chairs and hassocks, and so to command the
opportunities afforded by the red curtain.

On the stone walls above the wainscoting were hung great hatchments, the
canvas of some fraying away from the black quadrangular frames after a
lapse of years, and none of them very recently hung there. The front of
the pew was open to the chancel, and commanded a full view of the
reading-desk and a side glimpse of the pulpit through the bars of the
carved, rather battered rood-screen. Flanked by the reading-desk on one
side and the harmonium on the other were the benches occupied by the
school-children who formed the choir, and behind them were other benches
devoted to the use of the Squire's household, whose devotions