The Dalrymples

Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
CHAP.
MISS HERMINY'S a angel! That's what she be! The old gardener at the Rectory, who was uncle to the head-gardener at the Hall, and who prided himself not a little on that social distinction, brought down his spade with an expressive bump. Then he rested his two aged and muscular hands upon the spade handle and peered upward into the face of the person addressed, before proceeding to deliver himself more fully of his sentiments.
Miss Herminy's a angel! That's what I says! And I don't care who unsays it! She's got the wings a-wanting, and nought else. If 'twasn't for that, sir, she'd just soar right away, she would, to her native element, nor wouldn't stay no longer on this here sordid earth of ours. To look upon her now minds me of that what King David said, 'Oh that I had wings like a dove'—sir—not but what they be fitter words for an old fellow like me than a young thing like her. But sometimes I'm afeared it's that she will do one o' these days, when she comes along o' the path in her white frock, looking for all the world like a white-robed angel in them hymns we sings in Church, sir, and palms in their hands, and she so lightsome of spirit still, and her hair like gold, and a look of heaven in her blue eyes that's always smiling, and never a bit of pride nor a thought for her own self. Yes, sir, Miss Herminy's a angel, and no mistake!
Haven't the least doubt of it, responded the other, with a curious intonation. He might have been thirty or more in age, though young-looking for that. He was of good stature, good figure, good features, with a mouth lazily good-humoured and eyes lazily kind. As old Sutton rambled on, the younger man stood close outside the Rectory gate, one of those swing-gates which have five or six horizontal bars of wood, and another sloping diagonally from an upper to a lower opposite corner. He lounged against this gate with an air of gentlemanly indolence, partly holding it open, partly using it to support his weight.