iss Pepper
escorted her guest to the door and bade him a voluble good-by. Over
her shoulder the minister saw Kyan making frantic signs to him;
he interpreted the signals as a request for secrecy concerning the
interview by the window.

Several times during the remainder of that week he surprised his
housekeeper by suddenly laughing aloud when there was, apparently,
nothing to laugh at. He explained these outbursts by saying that he
had thought of something funny. Keziah suggested that it must be mighty
funny to make him laugh in the middle of sermon writing.

"I've heard sermons that were funny," she said, "though they wasn't
intended to be; but what I've heard of yours ain't that kind. I wish
you'd let me in on the joke. I haven't been feelin' like laughin' for
the last fortni't."

She had been rather grave and preoccupied, for her, of late. Bustling
and busy she always was, never sitting down to "rest," as she called it,
without a lap full of sewing. The minister's clothes were mended and his
socks darned as they had not been since his mother's day. And with
him, at meal times, or after supper in the sitting room, she was always
cheerful and good-humored. But he had heard her sigh at her work, and
once, when she thought herself unobserved, he saw her wipe her eyes with
her apron.

"No, no," she protested, when he asked if anything had gone wrong. "I'm
all right. Got a little cold or somethin', I guess, that's all."

She would not give any other explanation and absolutely refused to see
the doctor. Ellery did not press the matter. He believed the "cold" to
be but an excuse and wondered what the real trouble might be. It seemed
to him to date from the evening of his chapel experience.

He told no one, not even her, of Kyan's confidential disclosure, and,
after some speculation as to whether or not there might be a sequel, put
the whole ludicrous affair out of his mind. He worked hard in his study
and at his pastoral duties, and was conscious of a pleasant feeling that
he was gaining his people's confidence and esteem.

A week from the following Sunday he dined in state at the Daniels's
table. Captain Elkanah was gracious and condescending. Annabel was more
than that. She was dressed in her newest gown and was so very gushing
and affable that the minister felt rather embarrassed. When, after the
meal was over, Captain Elkanah excused himself and went upstairs for
his Sabbath nap, the embarrassment redoubled. Miss