what had been an evening scene
when he looked away from the landscape night itself on looking back;
but he could see enough to discover that a brougham had driven up to
the side-door used by the young water-bearers, and that a lady in
white-and-black half-mourning was in the act of alighting, followed by
what appeared to be a waiting-woman carrying wraps. They entered the
vestry-room of the chapel, and the door was shut. The service went on as
before till at a certain moment the door between vestry and chapel was
opened, when a woman came out clothed in an ample robe of flowing white,
which descended to her feet. Somerset was unfortunate in his position;
he could not see her face, but her gait suggested at once that she
was the lady who had arrived just before. She was rather tall than
otherwise, and the contour of her head and shoulders denoted a girl in
the heyday of youth and activity. His imagination, stimulated by this
beginning, set about filling in the meagre outline with most attractive
details.

She stood upon the brink of the pool, and the minister descended the
steps at its edge till the soles of his shoes were moistened with the
water. He turned to the young candidate, but she did not follow him:
instead of doing so she remained rigid as a stone. He stretched out his
hand, but she still showed reluctance, till, with some embarrassment, he
went back, and spoke softly in her ear.

She approached the edge, looked into the water, and turned away shaking
her head. Somerset could for the first time see her face. Though humanly
imperfect, as is every face we see, it was one which made him think that
the best in woman-kind no less than the best in psalm-tunes had gone
over to the Dissenters. He had certainly seen nobody so interesting
in his tour hitherto; she was about twenty or twenty-one--perhaps
twenty-three, for years have a way of stealing marches even upon
beauty's anointed. The total dissimilarity between the expression of
her lineaments and that of the countenances around her was not a little
surprising, and was productive of hypotheses without measure as to
how she came there. She was, in fact, emphatically a modern type of
maidenhood, and she looked ultra-modern by reason of her environment: a
presumably sophisticated being among the simple ones--not wickedly so,
but one who knew life fairly well for her age. Her hair, of good
English brown, neither light nor dark, was abundant--too abundant for
conveni