From the pulpit, Mr. Benson saw one and all—­the well-filled Bradshaw pew—­all in deep mourning, Mr. Bradshaw conspicuously so (he would have attended the funeral gladly if they would have asked him)—­the Farquhars—­the many strangers—­the still more numerous poor—­one or two wild-looking outcasts who stood afar off, but wept silently and continually.  Mr. Benson’s heart grew very full.

His voice trembled as he read and prayed.  But he steadied it as he opened his sermon—­his great, last effort in her honour—­the labour that he had prayed God to bless to the hearts of many.  For an instant the old man looked on all the upturned faces, listening, with wet eyes, to hear what he could say to interpret that which was in their hearts, dumb and unshaped, of God’s doings, as shown in her life.  He looked, and, as he gazed, a mist came before him, and he could not see his sermon, nor his hearers, but only Ruth, as she had been—­stricken low, and crouching from sight in the upland field by Llan-dhu—­like a woeful, hunted creature.  And now her life was over! her struggle ended!  Sermon and all was forgotten.  He sat down, and hid his face in his hands for a minute or so.  Then he arose, pale and serene.  He put the sermon away, and opened the Bible, and read the seventh chapter of Revelations, beginning at the ninth verse.

Before it was finished, most of his hearers were in tears.  It came home to them as more appropriate than any sermon could have been.  Even Sally, though full of anxiety as to what her fellow-Churchman would think of such proceedings, let the sobs come freely as she heard the words—­

“And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

“Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

“He preaches sermons sometimes,” said Sally, nudging Mr. Davis, as they rose from their knees at last.  “I make no doubt there was as grand a sermon in yon paper-book as ever we hear in church.  I’ve heard him pray uncommon fine—­quite beyond any but learned folk.”

Mr. Bradshaw had been anxious to do something to testify his respect for the woman, who, if all had entertained his opinions, would have been driven into hopeless sin.  Accordingly, he ordered the first stonemason of the town to meet him in the chapel-yard on Monday morning, to take measurement and receive directions for a tombstone.  They threaded their way among the grassy heaps to where Ruth was buried, in the south corner, beneath the great Wych-elm.  When they got there, Leonard raised himself up from the new-stirred turf.  His face was swollen with weeping; but, when he saw Mr. Bradshaw, he calmed himself, and checked his sobs, and, as an explanation of being where he was when thus surprised, he could find nothing to say but the simple words—­