"
With this Mrs. Snell picked up her bundle and marched off down the
road. She was quite hopeless, the Admiral determined, as he watched
her retreating figure and heard her sobs borne back to him on the
evening air. Well, well! it had been another reverse--but not a
defeat. His face cleared again as he turned to re-enter the house.
"Let me see: to-morrow is Sunday. They will probably be at church.
In the afternoon, though it involve the loss of my usual nap, I will
consider. On Monday I will act."
Even the strangers themselves, as they walked up the aisle of St.
Symphorian's Church, Troy, on the following morning, could not but
perceive something of importance to be in the wind. That the church
should be full was not unusual, for in those days Sunday Observance
was the rule among Trojans. But on this particular day the Wesleyan
and Bible Christian chapels must have been sadly depleted, so great
was the crush; and, besides, there was the unwonted magnificence of
dress, the stir caused by the simultaneous turning of some hundred
bonnets as the Goodwyn-Sandys entered, the audible whispering as they
took their seats, the nervousness of the Vicar, who twice dropped his
spectacles over the reading desk and once over the pulpit. On this
last occasion one of the glasses was broken, and the sermon in
consequence became, towards the end, a trifle involved.
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