I was on
the point of starting after her at full speed, to prevent her from hurting
herself, but reflecting that her own judgment ought to be as good as mine
in such a case, I returned, and sitting down on her seat, awaited her
reappearance, gazing at the ceiling. There I either saw or imagined I saw
signs of openings corresponding in number and position with those in the
lid under me. In about three minutes the old woman returned, panting but
not distressed, with a great crooked old key in her hand. Why are all the
keys of a church so crooked? I did not ask her that question, though. What
I said to her, was--
"You shouldn't run like that. I am in no hurry."
"Be you not, sir? I thought, by the way you spoke, you be taken with a
longing to get a-top o' the tower, and see all about you like. For you
see, sir, fond as I be of the old church, I du feel sometimes as if she'd
smother me; and then nothing will do but I must get at the top of the old
tower. And then, what with the sun, if there be any sun, and what with the
fresh air which there always be up there, sir,--it du always be fresh up
there, sir," she repeated, "I come back down again blessing the old church
for its tower.
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