The fine, upright, hale man whom you
saw at the commencement of this history had changed into a bowed, broken
mourner. Rachel's fate had done that. On the right as they moved up the
churchyard, was the mound which covered the remains of Rachel. Old
Matthew did not look towards it; as he passed it he only bent his head
the lower. But many others turned their heads; they remembered her that
day.
In the middle of the church, open now, dark and staring, was the vault
of the Verners. There lay already within it Stephen Verner's father, his
first wife, and the little child Rachel, Rachel Frost's foster-sister. A
grand grave this, compared to that lowly mound outside; there was a
grand descriptive tablet on the walls to the Verners; while the mound
was nameless. By the side of the large tablet was a smaller one, placed
there to the memory of the brave Sir Lionel Verner, who had fallen near
Moultan. Lionel involuntarily glanced up at it, as he stood now over the
vault, and a wish came across him that his father's remains were here,
amidst them, instead of in that far-off grave.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234