et."

Again she swept them with her eyes. Her father's face was apoplectic;
he was leaning forward, trying to speak, but he was too choked for
utterance. Nathaniel Puntz looked as though a wet sponge had been
dashed upon his sleek countenance. The other directors stared,
dumfounded. This case had no precedent in their experience. They were
at a loss how to take it.

"My resignation," Tillie continued, "must take effect
immediately--to-night. I trust you will have no difficulty in getting a
substitute."

She paused--there was not a movement or a sound in the room.

"I thank you for your attention." Tillie bowed, turned, and walked
across the room. Not until she reached the door was the spell broken.
With her hand on the knob, she saw her father rise and start toward her.

She had no wish for an encounter with him; quickly she went out into
the hall, and, in order to escape him, she opened the street door,
stepped out, and closed it very audibly behind her. Then hurrying in at
the adjoining door of the bar-room, she ran out to the hotel kitchen,
where she knew she would find her aunt.

Mrs. Wackernagel was alone, washing dishes at the sink. She looked up
with a start at Tillie's hurried entrance, and her kindly face showed
distress as she saw who it was; for, faithful to the Rules, she would
not speak to this backslider and excommunicant from the faith. But
Tillie went straight up to her, threw her arms about her neck, and
pressed her lips to her aunt's cheek.

"Aunty Em! I can't go away without saying good-by to you. I am going to
Europe! TO EUROPE, Aunty Em!" she cried. The words sounded unreal and
strange to her, and she repeated them to make their meaning clear to
herself. "Miss Margaret has sent for me to take me with her TO EUROPE!"

She rapidly told her aunt all that had happened, and Mrs. Wackernagel's
bright, eager face of delight expressed all the sympathy and affection
which Tillie craved from her, but which the Mennonite dared not utter.

"Aunty Em, no matter where I go or what may befall me, I shall never
forget your love and kindness. I shall remember it always, ALWAYS."

Aunty Em's emotions were stronger, for the moment, than her allegiance
to the Rules, and her motherly arms drew the girl to her bosom and held
her there in a long, silent embrace.

She refrained, however, from kissing her; and presently Tillie drew
herself away and, dashing the tears from her eyes, went out of the
house by the