In the correspondence with her publisher as to whether or not the
manuscript should be printed, George Eliot assures him that the
characters are drawn from life. And, in the closing paragraph of the
story, she tells us that Janet--an old woman whose once-black hair is
now quite gray--is living still. But Mr. Tryan, she says, is dead; and
she describes the simple gravestone in Milby churchyard. '_But_,' she
adds, '_there is another memorial of Edgar Tryan, which bears a fuller
record; it is Janet Dempster, rescued from self-despair, strengthened
with Divine hopes, and now looking back on years of purity and helpful
labor. The man who has left such a memorial behind him must have been
one whose heart beat with true compassion and whose lips were moved by
fervent faith._' It is the last sentence in the book; and every
minister, as he closes the covers and lays it aside, will covet for
himself some such incarnate monument. Only as a preacher's preaching is
'_made flesh_' in that way, will it be understood and appreciated by the
generations following.