CHAPTER XIV.
'Between Richard Mutimer, bachelor, and Adela Marian Waitham, spinster, both of this parish' It was the only announcement of the kind that Mr.Wyvern had to make this Sunday.

To one of his hearers he seemed to utter the names with excessive emphasis, his deep voice reverberating in the church.

The pews were high; Adela almost cowered in her corner, feeling pierced with the eyes, with the thoughts too, of the congregation about her.
She had wondered whether the Manor pew would be occupied to-day, but it was not.

When she stood up, her eyes strayed towards it; the red curtains which concealed the interior were old and faded, the wooden canopy crowned it with dreary state.

In three weeks that would be her place at service.