lpit that
was now his own.

The people had been gathering since long before the hour, and the
youths could find only standing room near the door. Cold as was the
weather, and keen as blew the wind into the church every time a door
was opened, the instant it was shut again it was warm, for the place
was crowded from the very height of the great steep-sloping
galleries, at the back of which the people were standing on the
window sills, down to the double swing-doors, which were constantly
cracking open as if the house was literally too full to hold the
congregation. The aisles also were crowded with people standing,
all eager yet solemn, with granite faces and live eyes. One who did
not know better might well have imagined them gathered in hunger
after good tidings from the kingdom of truth and hope, whereby they
might hasten the coming of that kingdom in their souls and the souls
they loved. But it was hardly that; it was indeed a long way from
it, and no such thing: the eagerness was, in the mass, doubtless
with exceptions, to hear the new preacher, the pyrotechnist of human
logic and eloquence, who was about to burn his halfpenny blue lights
over the abyss of truth, and throw his yelping crackers into it.

The eyes of the young men went wandering over the crowd, looking for
any of their few acquaintances, but below they mostly fell of course
on the backs of heads. There was, however, no mistaking either
Ginevra's bonnet or the occiput perched like a capital on the long
neck of her father. They sat a good way in front, about the middle
of the great church. At the sight of them Gibbie's face brightened,
Donal's turned pale as death. For, only the last week but one, he
had heard of the frequent visits of the young preacher to the
cottage, and of the favour in which he was held by both father and
daughter; and his state of mind since, had not, with all his
philosophy to rectify and support it, been an enviable one. That he
could not for a moment regard himself as a fit husband for the
lady-lass, or dream of exposing himself or her to the insult which
the offer of himself as a son-in-law would bring on them both from
the laird, was not a reflection to render the thought of such a bag
of wind as Fergus Duff marrying her, one whit the less horribly
unendurable. Had the laird been in the same social position as
before, Donal would have had no fear of his accepting Fergus; but
misfortune alters many relations. Fe