Stowell dare not look at them. He was thinking of the girl in Castle Rushen and picturing to himself a similar scene of joy and innocence which might have taken place only a few years before in the station by the glen.
"Ah!" said the Bishop, settling himself in his seat.
He was a short, dapper, almost dainty little man, who talked continually like the brook that often runs behind a Manx cottage and fills it with cheerful chatter.
"I suppose you've heard the news, Deemster?"
He produced a small evening newspaper.
"That poor young person in Castle Rushen is to be executed after all! Terrible, isn't it?"
Stowell bent his head.
"I really thought that after your address to the Jury she would have been pardoned. But who am I to set up my opinion against that of the King's advisers? And then think of the effect of bad example! Those dear children, for instance, they are not too young to remember. And if that unhappy girl had got off who knows what effect...."
Stowell, nursing the fires of his rebellion, hardly heard the running stream of commonplace.
"And then Holy Wedlock! I always say that every act of carnal transgression is a sin against the marriage altar."