There was a shadow over the best residence on Queen Street.

Anonymous letters continued to come in almost by every mail, making
charges and imputations upon Agnes, and frequently connecting Podge
Byerly with her.

Terrible epithets--such as "Murderess!" "A second Mrs. Chapman!"
"Jezebel," etc.--were employed in these letters.

Many of them were written by female hands or in very delicate male
chirography, as if men who wrote like women had their natures.

There was one woman's handwriting the girls learned to identify, and she
wrote more often than any--more beautifully in the writing, more
shameless in the meaning, as if, with the nethermost experience in
sensuality, she was prepared to subtleize it and be the universal
accuser of her sex.

"What fiends must surround us!" exclaimed Agnes. "There must be a
punishment deeper than any for the writers of anonymous letters. A
murderer strikes the vital spot but once. Here every commandment is
broken in the cowardly secret letter. False witness, the stab, illicit
joy, covetousness, dishonor of father and mother, and defamation of
God's image in the heart, are all committed in these loathsome letters."

"Yes," added Podge Byerly, "the woman who writes anonymous letters, I
think, will have a cancer, or wart on her eye, or marry a bow-legged
man. The resurrectionists will get her body, and the primary class in
the other world will play whip-top with the rest of her."

Agnes and Podge went to church prayer-meeting the night following Calvin
Van de Lear's repulse at their dwelling, and Mr. Duff Salter gave each
of them an arm.

Old Mr. Van de Lear led the exercises, and, after several persons had
publicly prayed by the direction of the venerable pastor, Calvin Van de
Lear, of his own motion and as a matter of course, took the floor and
launched into a florid supplication almost too elegant to be extempore.

As he continued, Podge Byerly, looking through her fingers, saw a
handsome, high-colored woman at Calvin's side, stealing glances at Agnes
Wilt.

It was the wife of Calvin Van de Lear's brother, Knox--a blonde of
large, innocent eyes, who usually came with Calvin to the church.

While Podge noticed this inquisitive or stray glance, she became
conscious that something in the prayer was directing the attention of
the whole meeting to their pew.

People turned about, and, with startled or bold looks, observed Agnes
Wilt, whose head was bowed and her veil down.