“A very womanly piece of work.”
“I don’t know whether ’tis woman or man be at the bottom. I’d throw blame on Thorn if I dared wi’out running danger of violence; but I be old an’ weak, an’ ’tis no good saying things you can’t enforce wi’ your right arm. Still, I do think he kindiddled her away from my boy.”
“’Tis no libel to think it, anyway,” said Mr. Chugg, and the sexton nodded.
“There’s parties as ought to be punished wheether or no,” he said, “and I hope the A’mighty won’t let it pass, an’ that I’ll live to see the wicked come by their deserts.”
A mile away Amos Thorn and Dinah walked together where immortal flowers bloomed about them at the dawn of June.
“Oh, but you’ll be true to me, dear heart—I can trust you?” she asked with a pleading voice.
The big blond man turned and hugged her to himself and kissed her.
“For ever an’ ever, Amen, my pretty!” he said.
CHAPTER III
“Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of His great mercy to take unto Himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope—”