He was the natural leader of these men of the land-owning or military class; they liked to hear him harangue; and harangue he did, till the striking of a clock suddenly checked him.
"I must be off! Well, Mrs.Gaddesden, it's the _Church_--the Church we have to think of!--the Church we have to fight for! What would England be without the Church--let's ask ourselves that.

Good-bye--good-bye!" "Is he talking of the Anglican establishment ?" muttered Mariette.

"_Quel drole de vieillard!_" The parson heard him, and, with a twinkle in his eyes, turned and proposed to show the French Canadian the famous library of the house.
The party melted away.

Even Elizabeth had been summoned for some last word with Lord Waynflete on the subject of the opening of the Town Hall.
Anderson was left alone.
He looked around him, at the room, the pictures, the panelled walls, and then moving to the window which was still unshuttered, he gazed out into the starlit dusk, and the dim, stately landscape.

There were lights in the church showing the stained glass of the perpendicular windows, and a flight of rooks was circling round the old tower.
As he stood there, somebody came back into the room.