r and cuffs of point lace, devised only and suitable only for
the minister's wedding, where it first saw the light?

"The white waist can only be explained as showing distinct hope!"
whispered the minister's wife during the reading of the church notices.

"To me it shows more than hope; I am very sure that Nancy would never
take any wear out of that lace for hope; it means certainty!" answered
Maria, who was always strong in the prophetic line.

Justin's identity had dawned upon most of the congregation by sermon
time. A stranger to all but one or two at first, his presence in the
Peabody pew brought his face and figure back, little by little, to the
minds of the old parishioners.

When the contribution plate was passed, the sexton always began at the
right-wing pews, as all the sextons before him had done for a hundred
years. Every eye in the church was already turned upon Justin and
Nancy, and it was with almost a gasp that those in the vicinity saw a
ten-dollar bill fall in the plate. The sexton reeled, or, if that is too
intemperate a word for a pillar of the church, the good man tottered,
but caught hold of the pew rail with one hand, and, putting the thumb
of his other over the bill, proceeded quickly to the next pew, lest
the stranger should think better of his gift, or demand change, as had
occasionally been done in the olden time.

Nancy never fluttered an eyelash, but sat quietly by Justin's side with
her bosom rising and falling under the beaver fur and her cold
hands clasped tight in the little brown muff. Far from grudging this
appreciable part of their slender resources, she thrilled with pride to
see Justin's offering fall in the plate.

Justin was too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice anything, but
his munificent contribution had a most unexpected effect upon his
reputation, after all; for on that day, and on many another later one,
when his sudden marriage and departure with Nancy Wentworth were under
discussion, the neighbors said to one another:--"Justin must be making
money fast out West! He put ten dollars in the contribution plate
a-Sunday, and paid the minister ten more next day for marryin' him to
Nancy; so the Peabody luck has turned at last!"--which as a matter of
fact, it had.

"And all the time," said the chairman of the carpet committee to the
treasurer of the Dorcas Society--"all the time, little as she realized
it, Nancy was laying the carpet in her own pew. Now she's married t