her observed her quietly
and interestedly as they went home together, but said nothing beyond an
indifferent word or two. He was beginning to realise the serious reality
of her spiritual life, and to dread anything that would even approximate
to coming between her soul and her Saviour. The father and daughter
understood one another, and were content to be silent together.

Her talks with Mrs. Marrett, too, left their traces on her mind. The
Alderman's wife, for the first time in her life, found her views and
reminiscences listened to as if they were oracles, and she needed little
encouragement to pour them out in profusion. She was especially generous
with her tales of portents and warnings; and the girl was more than once
considerably alarmed by what she heard while the ladies were alone in the
dim firelit parlour on the winter afternoons before the candles were
brought in.

"When you were a little child, my dear," began the old lady one day,
"there was a great burning made everywhere of all the popish images and
vestments; all but the copes and the altar-cloths that they made into
dresses for the ministers' new wives, and bed-quilts to cover them; and
there were books and banners and sepulchres and even relics. I went out
to see the burning at Paul's, and though I knew it was proper that the
old papistry should go, yet I was uneasy at the way it was done.

"Well," went on the old lady, glancing about her, "I was sitting in this
very room only a few days after, and the air began to grow dark and
heavy, and all became still. There had been two or three cocks crowing
and answering one another down by the river, and others at a distance;
and they all ceased: and there had been birds chirping in the roof, and
they ceased. And it grew so dark that I laid down my needle and went to
the window, and there at the end of the street over the houses there was
coming a great cloud, with wings like a hawk, I thought; but some said
afterwards that, when they saw it, it had fingers like a man's hand, and
others said it was like a great tower, with battlements. However that may
be, it grew nearer and larger, and it was blue and dark like that curtain
there; and there was no wind to stir it, for the windows had ceased
rattling, and the dust was quiet in the streets; and still it came on
quickly, growing as it came; and then there came a far-away sound, like a
heavy waggon, or, some said, like a deep voice complaining. And I turned
awa