new how many persons in the church were
thinking that they might be the next to plight their vows; with
crimsoning cheeks she had thought it herself.

Now there returned before Isabel's eyes the once radiant procession
of the brides--but how changed! And bitter questioning she
addressed to each! Had any such confession been made to any one of
them--either before marriage or afterwards--by the man she had
loved? Was it for some such reason that one had been content to
fold her hands over her breast before the birth of her child? Was
this why another lived on, sad young wife, motherless? Was this
why in the town there were women who refused to marry at all? So
does a little knowledge of evil move backward and darken for us
even the bright years in which it had no place.

The congregation were assembling rapidly. Among those who passed
further down were several of the girls of Isabel's set. How fresh
and sweet they looked as they drifted gracefully down the aisles
this summer morning! How light-hearted! How far away from her in
her new wretchedness! Some, after they were seated, glanced back
with a smile. She avoided their eyes.

A little later the Osborns entered, the bride and groom of a few
months before. Their pew was immediately in front of hers. Kate
wore mourning for her mother. As she seated herself, she lifted
her veil halfway, turned and slipped a hand over the pew into
Isabel's. The tremulous pressure of the fingers spoke of present
trouble; and as Isabel returned it with a quick response of her
own, a tear fell from the hidden eyes.

The young groom's eyes were also red and swollen, but for other
reasons; and he sat in the opposite end of the pew as far as
possible from his wife's side. When she a few moments later leaned
toward him with timidity and hesitation, offering him an open
prayer-book, he took it coldly and laid it between them on the
cushion. Isabel shuddered: her new knowledge of evil so cruelly
opened her eyes to the full understanding of so much.

Little rime was left for sympathy with Kate. Nearer the pulpit was
another pew from which her thoughts had never been wholly
withdrawn. She had watched it with the fascination of abhorrence;
and once, feeling that she could not bear to see him come in with
his mother and younger brother, she had started to leave the
church. But just then her grandmother had bustled richly in,
followed by her aunt; and more powerful with Isabel