The doors and windows of the church were left open all night to let the dead pastor's cadaverous odour fade away.
Kate and Christine returned from the funeral to their shabby home, ate dinner in silence, then Catherine opened the Scriptures to comfort their souls. When darkness fell, Cassie came running home, tired from the long day, the heat and running through the fields, so, without supper, she collapsed on her bollard, asked: "Isn't Daddy back yet?" and immediately fell into a deep, childlike sleep.
Christine went to bed after Cassie. Catherine read the Scriptures for a short time, then gathered up her clothes and her father's belongings to distribute to the men of the village before reaching the bed. The elder Glowford was very weary both in mind and body, but from tomorrow the work in the fields would resume, for prolonged mourning was too great a luxury for the Walsingham people.
The peasants received the long-awaited matins the very next morning, and gladdened their hearts with it. The Glowford sisters also came, and Cassie was very much embarrassed to see that it was not her father who conducted the matins, but a complete stranger, a complete stranger, "a strange, scrawny man," as she told her sisters. Asking her sisters why this was so, Cassie was told that Pastor Litley was merely filling in for their father until he returned from his journey, and these words reassured the worried girl.
She looked pleadingly at Mr. Litley, and he could not resist the beautiful gaze of her brown eyes.
– Of course, Miss Glowford, as you say," he replied. – I shall remain silent until you yourself have told your sister of your terrible loss.
– Thank you, reverend, you are so kind! – Catherine smiled. – What do you think of our church?
– The church is beautiful, but I'm not sure what's going on in it. I think it's being repaired? – The pastor was flattered that Catherine was interested in his opinion.
– The matter is that our landlord is restoring it, and that's where my poor father died: a slab fell on him… I know he's in heaven now, at the foot of God's throne, and I find peace in that. But we have decided that you, Mr. Litley, will not assist on the construction, for your own safety.