lmighty, I denounce the hellish instigators of all this abominable lust,
the frail instruments of temptations--Women! These are the scourges of
the world! accursed by reason of their vanity! condemned everlastingly by
reason of their carnal desire and of their perpetual contamination of the
pure heart of man!'

This was more than Wilhelmine could tolerate coming from the lips of the
wretch who, but a few hours before, had proved himself to be a very
beast. She would hear no more of his insolent diatribes! She gave the
sign to the bellows-blower to commence his labours, and as she heard
Mueller's voice again rising in a burst of wild denunciation, she crashed
both hands on the keys of the organ, drowning the preacher's words in a
flood of magnificent sound. In a triumph song of the fullness of Earth's
beauty and glory the giant chords rang out, and Wilhelmine laughed aloud
under cover of the music. This was her answer to the hollowness of the
hypocrite's denunciation of life and happiness; this was her confession
of faith in the joy of living, and this was her revenge upon the man who
had humiliated her. She remembered, however, that the congregation must
be propitiated for the interruption, and sliding her strong fingers from
note to note on the organ she modulated her triumphant rhapsody into the
simple, restful C Major; then she played the first bar of the canticle
which Monsieur Gabriel had given out to the singers; who, though sitting
among the congregation during the services, were still a very compact and
united choir carefully trained by him, for the most part, from childhood.
As she expected, they answered immediately to the organ's command, and a
hundred young voices sang Luther's grand old hymn--

'Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott.'

* * * * *

On the following afternoon Wilhelmine was sitting disconsolately in her
attic. The book she was reading had fallen from her hands, and her eyes
rested on the ugly blue walls of her room. She reviewed in her mind the
events of the previous day; the scene in the church, and her subsequent
departure therefrom, which she had managed so deftly that, though Mueller
was in the graveyard when she came out, she had evaded him, and joining
Anna, who was waiting for her near the porch, she had succeeded in
passing the pastor without staying to hear what he evidently wished to
say. Frau von Graevenitz chid her sharply for interrupting the sermon,