I lingered about the churchyard. Mr. Voller was probably dusting the litany and the Rector’s Bible, and setting such things as he had not arranged over night in order. Presently the villagers began to pass across the churchyard path. There was not much greeting interchanged beyond a ‘good-morning’ or two. The gossiping came after the service. I went into the church, and sat down in a secluded corner and waited for the service to begin. Time went on, and there was no sign of the Rector or curate. Presently the curate with a very white face emerged from the vestry, and going up to a stout, comfortable woman in a front pew spoke to her in a whisper, and they passed out of the west door into the churchyard. Suddenly a piercing shriek came through the window. The congregation sprang to their feet. What on earth was the matter? Old Mr. Crabbs, the solicitor, after gazing around hesitatingly for a few moments, hurried out, followed at short intervals by the whole congregation. I was one of the last, and was in time to see Mrs. Voller being led through the wicket-gate at the end of the churchyard by the curate and the Rector. I quite saw what had happened. Most probably, from the mere instinct of meddling, Mr. Voller had drunk out of the glass, and had as a consequence departed on this pleasant Sunday morning for a better land. By degrees the whole congregation, with many Sabbath-breakers from the village street corners, were crowded round the vestry door. “Annie, take your little brother and sister for a walk,” said one lady, who was evidently bent on seeing as much of the fun as possible herself. “What has happened?” I asked of a bystander. “They do say as Mr. Voller ’ave ’ad a fit and died, and the doctor be examinin’ ’im now.” In a few minutes an individual whom I took to be the doctor appeared at the vestry door. “Will some of you run and fetch a stretcher and help to carry him home?” “’e’s dead, then, doctor?” “I am afraid so.” “’ave ’e ’ad a fit?” “Heart disease, I think,” answered the doctor, gravely. Full of importance, several young men hastened off for the stretcher, and in their hurry to oblige became jammed at the wicket-gate. The whole thing was a very serious annoyance to me, and I walked off across the fields in a high state of indignation with the departed Mr. Voller. That such a nobody should have been allowed to obstruct the workings of a great policy was irritating. I only hoped that it would be a lesson to Mr. Voller in his progress through the underworld to be less inquisitive. I grew more and more indignant with the shade of that estimable gentleman as the day went on. I walked over to Lye again in the evening, when the Rector preached a sermon on the instability of human hopes. He alluded to the late Mr. Voller with much feeling. From the gossip in the churchyard after service I gathered that the doctor had quite made up his mind that death was due to heart disease.