There
were few who could read, and even for those who could there were only
four Prayer-books in the church, the clergyman's, the clerk's, the
Kentons', and one discovered by an old Elmwood servant. The Squire's
family came not; Goody Grace was dead, and though Rusha tried to
instruct her husband and her little girl, she herself was much at a
loss.
To Mr. Holworth it was almost like that rededication of the Temple
when the old men wept at the thought of the glory of the former
house, but there were some on whom his eye rested with joy and peace.
There were Blane and his wife, good and faithful though ignorant;
there were the old miller and his son, who had come all that distance
since there had as yet been no restoration in their church, and the
goings on of Original-Sin Hopkins and his friends had thoroughly
disgusted them, and made the old man yearn towards the church of his
youth, and there was the little group of three, the toil-worn but
sweet-faced sister, calm and restful, though watchful; the tall youth
with thoughtful, earnest, awe-struck face, come for his first
Communion, for which through those many years he had been taught to
pray and long, and between them the wasted form and wan features
lighted up with that wonderful radiance that had come on them with
the sense that the trust was fulfilled, only it was brighter, calmer,
higher, than even at the greeting of the vicar.
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