Mr. Dusautoy, in thanking Mr.
Kendal, begged him to allow himself to be nominated his churchwarden
next Easter, and having consented while his blood was up, there was
no danger that, however he might dislike the prospect, he would
falter when the time should come.
CHAPTER X.
It was 'a green Yule,' a Christmas like an April day, and even the
lengthening days and strengthening cold of January attaining to
nothing more than three slight hoar-frosts, each quickly melting into
mud, and the last concluding in rain and fog.
'What would Willow Lawn have been without the drainage?' Albinia
often thought when she paddled down the wet streets, and saw the
fields flooded. The damp had such an effect upon Sophy's throat,
temper, and whole nervous system, that her moods had few intervals,
and Albinia wrote to the surgeon a detail of her symptoms, asking if
she had not better be removed into a more favourable air. But he
pronounced that the injury of the transport would outbalance the
casual evils of the bad weather, and as the rain and fog mitigated,
she improved; but there were others on whom the heavy moist air had a
more fatal effect.
One morning, Mr. Kendal saw his wife descending the picturesque
rugged stone staircase that led outside the house to the upper
stories of the old block of buildings under the hill, nearly opposite
to Willow Lawn. She came towards him with tears still in her eyes as
she said, 'Poor Mrs.
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