crowns, "These are
they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." It makes me feel very
unhappy sometimes, because I haven't been through tribulation yet, and
I shan't be ready to die till I have.'

She was set quickly down upon her feet, and without a word the
gentleman left her, striding down the aisle and shutting the church
door with a slam that echoed and re-echoed through the silent church.

Betty was startled at his sudden departure; she took up her dog in her
arms again, and stood gazing silently up at the window above, through
which the setting sun was sending coloured rays in all directions.
Then with a little sigh she turned and left the church. Outside the
porch was a grey-headed old man, the sexton, who was taking his evening
walk amongst the graves.

'Hulloo!' he said, 'be you the one that banged this 'ere door just now?
'Twas enough to scare the owls and bats and all the other beasties from
their holes for evermore.'

'No, it wasn't me; it was a gentleman.'

'Ah, was it now? Shouldn't be surprised if I knew who it was! 'Twas
Mr. Russell, surely! There's no other gent that favours this 'ere
building like him.'

'Is he Violet Russell's father?' questioned Betty eagerly.

The old man nodded. 'Yes, he be that little maid's parent, and he'll
never get over her loss. She were the apple of his eye, and when she
were took, he were like a man demented. Ah, 'tis the young as well as
the old I have to dig for!'

'Does that gentleman live here?' asked Betty.

'Ay, surely, for he be the owner of the whole property hereabout. But
'tis not money will give comfort; he have had a deal o' trouble. I
mind when his father turned him out o' doors for his painting and
sich-like persoots. And he went to Italy, and there he taught hisself
to be a hartist, and painted and carved a lot o' stone figures, and
folks say he made a name for hisself in Lunnon. He were taken back by
his father after a bit, and came a-coorting Miss Violet Granger, that
lived over at Deemster Hall. But his brother, Mr. Rudolph, cut him
out, when he went off to Germany for a spell, and he and Miss Violet
runned away together, and when he come back he found his bride stolen.
He were terrible cut up, and off he goes to foreign parts again, and
never a sight of he did us get till the old squire were dead, and Mr.
Rudolph had killed hisself out hunting. Then Mr. Fran