E. Nesbit

“ The lichen, that in the marsh softens caressingly all brick and stone-work, had painted the old stones a soft and pleasant colour, and on the tower and the strangely shaped turret hung great bulging masses of shining ivy.
Alexa walked round the church, noting every dripstone, every carved corbel, every moss-brown buttress.
"What a church," she said, "to find on the very first day! 'Ivy Church' looked good on the map, certainly; but, then, so often good names turn out to be only yellow brick and galvanised iron, and the church is churchwarden-Gothic built in the wicked sixties." ”

“ THE dusty road lay white before her, the dusty hedges retreating swiftly on either side very rarely broken by tree or gate. Far away to each side lay the placid pastures of the marshes, where the quiet beasts grazed and the sheep cropped the short, sweet grass. ”

“ If we have got to die, I should like to hold your hand. I am getting a little frightened, and I don't like that chapel where the sacks are. I think someone walks there. That is a tomb at the side, and, besides, the dead people are all around us—close, quite close. ”

“ She was entirely at her ease; it was quite natural to her to talk to an intelligent human being with interests like her own. But the young man, whose upbringing had been among women of a narrower and more formal type, found the situation novel, with a touch of romance in it even.
Alexa spoke her mind freely as to the iniquity of parson and churchwardens, and he listened, smiling a little awkwardly, but endorsing to the full her condemnations.
"But you don't know the worst yet," he said, when the brass rubbing was finished. "Come and see the north aisle." ”

“ When they reached the crypt he lighted candle after candle and stuck them on the ledges of the walls.
"There!" he said; "isn't it magnificent?"
"I feel a little bewildered," she said. "I thought Ivychurch had no friends, and now I find it on its way to the high places of honour. I thought you were a tourist and——"
"It's being done most carefully," he went on irrelevantly; "nothing will be spoiled. It was the flannels, I suppose. I can't get out of the way of wearing them in the summer. As soon as the walls are safe, and the roof, we shall go on to explore behind the lath and plaster. ”

“ It was a glorious idea, this—a bicycle tour through Romney Marsh, by way of holiday—and the series of articles and sketches, "Churches of the Marshlands," would pay for the holiday over and over again. Alexa wondered why she had never thought of this before. Hitherto she had worked at her writing and illustrating in her little London flat, and spent a quiet and straitened fortnight at some cheap seaside place. But now, since she had a bicycle, all things seemed possible. She finished the sketch and went to look at the church. ”

“ He set the candle on a ledge and began to walk up and down, holding his head in his hands. Alexa wondered if the candle-grease on his hand had hardened yet, or if it would come off on his hair. She wondered why she did not feel cold. It was frosty outside, she remembered. She longed to take the man by the shoulders and shake the truth out of him. ”

“ You see, I'm doing some articles on Kentish churches, and the brass would come in nicely——"
That was a feminine touch he noted. Men do not begin to talk of their work at once to perfect strangers. But women are so pleased and surprised to find that they can earn their own living, that they speak of their work with the insistent, artless pride of clever children. ”

“ But within a month of its arrival masons were at work in the old church.
II.
Alexa was very dull indeed. It is a fine thing to earn your own living and be independent, but a little lonely flat in London is a poor place to spend Christmas in, and Alexa had no relations. She looked up from her book two days before the loneliest day of all, and saw that the sun was turning her green serge curtains a fine yellow.
"How pretty Ivychurch must be looking!" she said. "I will go and spend Christmas in the marshes." ”

“ Oh, say I was good and brave," and with that she fainted quietly away.
*****
"See what comes of leaving church doors unlocked," he said, a few hours later, when, warmed and fed, they sat beside the rectory fire waiting for the carriage that was to take Alexa back to her lodging in the little inn. "If that tramp hadn't crept in for warmth——"
"Don't," she said: "I'm afraid to think of it. I believe I shall be afraid now all my life."
"You won't. Fear won't live long with you, you brave woman. When am I to see you again?" ”

“ Then she asked him if he could remember the morning prayers, and she listened to the beautiful words and schooled her heart to patience and courage. "If the worst comes," she said, "I shall not die alone. He is a man. ”