A good place too,' said the schoolmaster, leading the way towards it,

disencumbering himself of his portmanteau, and placing it on the

stone seat. 'Be sure that I come back with good news, and am not long

gone!'

So, the happy schoolmaster put on a bran-new pair of gloves which he

had carried in a little parcel in his pocket all the way, and hurried off,

full of ardour and excitement.

The child watched him from the porch until the intervening foliage hid

him from her view, and then stepped softly out into the old

churchyard - so solemn and quiet that every rustle of her dress upon

the fallen leaves, which strewed the path and made her footsteps

noiseless, seemed an invasion of its silence. It was a very aged, ghostly

place; the church had been built many hundreds of years ago, and

had once had a convent or monastery attached; for arches in ruins,

remains of oriel windows, and fragments of blackened walls, were yet

standing-, while other portions of the old building, which had

crumbled away and fallen down, were mingled with the churchyard

earth and overgrown with grass, as if they too claimed a burying-place

and sought to mix their ashes with the dust of men. Hard by these

gravestones of dead years, and forming a part of the ruin which some

pains had been taken to render habitable in modern times, were two

small dwellings with sunken windows and oaken doors, fast hastening

to decay, empty and desolate.

Upon these tenements, the attention of the child became exclusively

riveted. She knew not why. The church, the ruin, the antiquated

graves, had equal claims at least upon a stranger's thoughts, but from

the moment when her eyes first rested on these two dwellings, she

could turn to nothing else. Even when she had made the circuit of the

enclosure, and, returning to the porch, sat pensively waiting for their

friend, she took her station where she could still look upon them, and

felt as if fascinated towards that spot.

The Old Curiosity Shop