XLIII. MR. WHITELAW MAKES AN END OF THE MYSTERY
XLIV. AFTER THE FIRE
XLV. MR. WHITELAW MAKES HIS WILL
XLVI. ELLEN REGAINS HER LIBERTY
XLVII. CLOSING SCENES




CHAPTER I.

THE COMMON FEVER.


A warm summer evening, with a sultry haze brooding over the level
landscape, and a Sabbath stillness upon all things in the village of
Lidford, Midlandshire. In the remoter corners of the old gothic church
the shadows are beginning to gather, as the sermon draws near its close;
but in the centre aisle and about the pulpit there is broad daylight
still shining-in from the wide western window, across the lower half of
which there are tall figures of the Evangelists in old stained glass.

There are no choristers at Lidford, and the evening service is conducted
in rather a drowsy way; but there is a solemn air of repose about the
gray old church that should be conducive to tranquil thoughts and pious
meditations. Simple and earnest have been the words of the sermon, simple
and earnest seem the countenances of the congregation, looking reverently
upwards at the face of their pastor; and one might fancy, contemplating
that grand old church, so much too spacious for the needs of the little
flock gathered there to-night, that Lidford was a forgotten,