"No--middle-aged," he corrected, a little frigidly and perhaps
a little mockingly at the same time.

"Very well, middle-aged if you like; I don't know her
personally. One hears about her; but I did not know she had a
place in these parts."

"She owns most of this parish and has done so much for us that
we can very well look leniently on a little weakness--her wish
that the future inhabitants of the place shall not remember her
as a middle-aged woman not remarkable for good looks--'funny,'
as you just now said."

He was wonderfully candid, I thought. But what extraordinary
benefits had she bestowed on them, I asked, to enable them to
regard, or to say, that this picture of a very beautiful young
female was her likeness!

"Why," he said, "the church would not have been built but for
her. We were astonished at the sum she offered to contribute
towards the work, and at once set about pulling the small old
church down so as to rebuild on the exact site."

"Do you know," I returned, "I can't help saying something you
will not like to hear. It is a very fine church, no doubt,
but it always angers me to hear of a case like this where some
ancient church is pulled down and a grand new one raised in
its place to the honour and glory of some rich parvenu with or
without a brand new title."