It was a small, pale, thin, delicately and symmetrically formed face, yet not the less a strong one, with endurance on the somewhat sad brow, and force in the closed lips, while a good conscience looked clear out of the grey eyes.
They had been talking about the fast-gathering tide of opinion which, driven on by the wind of words, had already begun to beat so furiously against the moles and ramparts of Church and kingdom.

The execution of lord Strafford was news that had not yet begun to 'hiss the speaker.' 'It is indeed an evil time,' said the old man.

'The world has seldom seen its like.' 'But tell me, master Herbert,' said the lady, 'why comes it in this our day?
For our sins or for the sins of our fathers ?' 'Be it far from me to presume to set forth the ways of Providence!' returned her guest.

'I meddle not, like some that should be wiser, with the calling of the prophet.

It is enough for me to know that ever and again the pride of man will gather to "a mighty and a fearful head," and, like a swollen mill-pond overfed of rains, burst the banks that confine it, whether they be the laws of the land or the ordinances of the church, usurping on the fruitful meadows, the hope of life for man and beast.