"
"It is not worth thinking about, Walter. We are heavily your debtors,
still, for the kindness of your father and yourself to me at Derry, and
indeed on all other occasions. Besides, it was the least we could do,
seeing that it was my grandfather's hatred of your family which brought
the matter about."
"What became of your grandfather," Walter asked, "when you interrupted
his sermon?"
"He fell down in a fit," John replied; "and perhaps it was the best thing
he could do, for I don't know what my father and he would have said to
each other, had it not been so. He was carried home, and he has not been
the same man since. I don't think the subject was ever alluded to between
my father and him; but I think that being balked, just at the moment when
he thought he had obtained the object of his hopes and prayers for the
last forty years, has almost broken his heart.
"He goes about the house, scarce speaking a word, and seems to have lost
almost all his energy. He has ceased to read the family prayers, and to
hold forth morning and night. I do think he considers that the Lord has
cheated him out of his lawful vengeance. It is awfully sad, Walter,
though it is strange, to see such a travesty of religion as the tenets of
my grandfather and some of the old men who, like him, represent the views
of Cromwell's soldiers.
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