ound communicated a calm to her wounded spirit.

What a contrast did the lovely scene she now gazed upon present to the
squalid neighbourhood she had recently quitted! On all sides, expanded
prospects of country the most exquisite and most varied. Immediately
beneath her lay Willesden,--the most charming and secluded village in
the neighbourhood of the metropolis--with its scattered farm-houses, its
noble granges, and its old grey church-tower just peeping above a grove
of rook-haunted trees.

Towards this spot Mrs. Sheppard now directed her steps. She speedily
reached her own abode,--a little cottage, standing in the outskirts of
the village. The first circumstance that struck her on her arrival
seemed ominous. Her clock had stopped--stopped at the very hour on which
she had quitted the Mint! She had not the heart to wind it up again.

After partaking of some little refreshment, and changing her attire,
Mrs. Sheppard prepared for church. By this time, she had so far
succeeded in calming herself, that she answered the greetings of the
neighbours whom she encountered on her way to the sacred edifice--if
sorrowfully, still composedly.

Every old country church is beautiful, but Willesden is the most
beautiful country church we know; and in Mrs. Sheppard's time it was
even more beautiful than at present, when the hand of improvement has
proceeded a little too rashly with alterations and repairs. With one or
two exceptions, there were no pews; and, as the intercourse with London
was then but slight, the seats were occupied almost exclusively by the
villagers. In one of these seats, at the end of the aisle farthest
removed from the chancel, the widow took her place, and addressed
herself fervently to her devotions.

The service had not proceeded far, when she was greatly disturbed by the
entrance of a person who placed himself opposite her, and sought to
attract her attention by a number of little arts, surveying her, as he
did so, with a very impudent and offensive stare. With this person--who
was no other than Mr. Kneebone--she was too well acquainted; having,
more than once, been obliged to repel his advances; and, though his
impertinence would have given her little concern at another season, it
now added considerably to her distraction. But a far greater affliction
was in store for her.

Just as the clergyman approached the altar, she perceived a boy steal
quickly into the church, and ensconce himself behind the wo