Janet and Lily had some tea. The Cygnet knew a great deal more about beer and punch than about tea, and consequently, it was not very refreshing. Lily began to feel anxious about her mother, she looked so pale.
"Mother dear," the girl said, "let us go out and get a little fresh air. We need not go out of sight of the door, you know."
"It is very close indeed; I am half smothered," poor Janet said; and, more to please Lily than because she hoped for relief, she tied her bonnet and stood up. The busy landlady heard the door open, and came into the passage.
"We are going to walk about a little," said Lily.
"Maybe you'd like to see the church, ladies? Sexton lives next door, and will lend you the key of yonder little gate, just t'other side of the road; it opens into the churchyard—the seminary, I believe, gentlefolk call it—and it's a matter of general remark that our church and the churchyard are very pretty; I've known people come from a distance to see them. I'll just get you the key."
She rushed into the nearest cottage, and came out carrying a key. "Here 'tis, ma'am; and if you go up the steps you'll see, just before you, near the top, two little graves, kept beautiful with flowers, and when you come back, I'll tell you the story of them two graves, which is worth hearing, I assure you, besides being true. Here's the key of the gate—the wicked gate, sexton calls it, but it's a good gate enough, and handy when one don't want to go round to the big one."
To stop the torrent of words, Janet took the key, and she and Lily crossed the road.
"How she does chatter!" Lily said. "But we may as well go in, mother. It will be quieter than out here, don't you think?"
"Yes, so it will. We can watch for your father well enough there."
Once inside the wicket, Janet would have been content to sit on the steps which led up to the church, but she found that she could not see over the wall; so they began to climb upwards. And the place was so pretty, and, moreover, so unlike anything that Lily had ever seen, that they went on and on, till they reached the top of the bank, and saw before them the beautiful old church, with a wide, low porch; and between them and it a number of graves. All were nicely kept, but two were quite beautiful, covered completely with blue and white flowers, while the grass surrounding them was like velvet. Round the white marble cross at the head of one grave, a white clematis was trained so skilfully that the inscription was not obscured. The other grave had a cross, but it was of wood, and round it clung a rose-tree, with small crimson roses in great profusion. But here, too, the growth was not allowed to interfere with the inscription.