Petronella herself had been much vexed at Armine's three days'
defection, which was ascribed to the worldly and anti-ecclesiastical
influences of the rest of the family. She wanted her brother to
preach a sermon about Lot's wife; but Jemmie, as she called him, had
on certain occasions a passive force of his own, and she could not
prevail. She regretted it the less when Armine and Babie duly did
the work they had undertaken in the Sunday-school, though they would
not come in for any intermediate meals.
"What did Mrs. Brownlow tell you in her note?" she asked of her
brother while giving him his tea before the last service.
"That in a few days she shall be able to answer me."
"Ah, well! Do you know there is a belief in the parish that
something has happened-—that a claim is to be set up to the whole
property, and that the whole family will be reduced to beggary?"
"I never heard of an estate to which there was not some claimant in
obscurity."
"But this comes from undoubted authority." Mr. Parsons smiled a
little. "One can't help it if servants _will_ hear things. Well!
any way it will be overruled for good to that dear boy—-though it
would be a cruel stroke on the parish."
It was the twilight of a late spring evening when the congregation
streamed out of Church, and Elvira, who had managed hitherto to avoid
all intercourse with the River Hollow party, found herself grappled
by Lisette without hope of rescue.
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