When she awoke, the sun was high in Heaven.  It was a bright and beautiful day:  so bright, so beautiful, that even her sad heart was cheered by it.  The air, perfumed with the delicious fragrance of the new-mown grass, was vocal with the melodies of the birds; the thick foliage of the trees was glistening in the sunshine; all nature seemed happy and rejoicing; but, above all, the serene Sabbath stillness reigning around communicated a calm to her wounded spirit.

What a contrast did the lovely scene she now gazed upon present to the squalid neighbourhood she had recently quitted!  On all sides, expanded prospects of country the most exquisite and most varied.  Immediately beneath her lay Willesden,—­the most charming and secluded village in the neighbourhood of the metropolis—­with its scattered farm-houses, its noble granges, and its old grey church-tower just peeping above a grove of rook-haunted trees.

Towards this spot Mrs. Sheppard now directed her steps.  She speedily reached her own abode,—­a little cottage, standing in the outskirts of the village.  The first circumstance that struck her on her arrival seemed ominous.  Her clock had stopped—­stopped at the very hour on which she had quitted the Mint!  She had not the heart to wind it up again.

After partaking of some little refreshment, and changing her attire, Mrs. Sheppard prepared for church.  By this time, she had so far succeeded in calming herself, that she answered the greetings of the neighbours whom she encountered on her way to the sacred edifice—­if sorrowfully, still composedly.

Every old country church is beautiful, but Willesden is the most beautiful country church we know; and in Mrs. Sheppard’s time it was even more beautiful than at present, when the hand of improvement has proceeded a little too rashly with alterations and repairs.  With one or two exceptions, there were no pews; and, as the intercourse with London was then but slight, the seats were occupied almost exclusively by the villagers.  In one of these seats, at the end of the aisle farthest removed from the chancel, the widow took her place, and addressed herself fervently to her devotions.

The service had not proceeded far, when she was greatly disturbed by the entrance of a person who placed himself opposite her, and sought to attract her attention by a number of little arts, surveying her, as he did so, with a very impudent and offensive stare.  With this person—­who was no other than Mr. Kneebone—­she was too well acquainted; having, more than once, been obliged to repel his advances; and, though his impertinence would have given her little concern at another season, it now added considerably to her distraction.  But a far greater affliction was in store for her.