Chapter XII.—The Quick and the DeadBefore leaving Southend, Chime, upon the advice of his young mistress, arranged for the body of his niece to be brought back to Stratford St. Mary to be buried in the village churchyard, and that same evening Mrs. Jackson went to interview the rector about the funeral.
As the rector had told Larose, Mrs. Jackson was a zealous member of his congregation, and, indeed, no one in the village was a more regular attendant at the services than she, not only on Sundays, but on every week-day as well. Each daily evensong, wet or fine, would find her in her accustomed place, a small, frail figure, ecstatically contemplating a rather gruesome stained glass window depicting the martyrdom of the saints.
Now more than sixty years of age, she was a strange mixture of
