eller as distinguished from
the rustic. She was of about Alice's height, perhaps a shade taller.
It did not escape the attention of the Wares that she wore clothes of a
more stylish cut and a livelier arrangement of hues than any Alice had
ever dared own, even in lax-minded Tyre. The two talked of this in their
room on Friday night; and Theron explained that congregations would
tolerate things of this sort with a stranger which would be sharply
resented in the case of local folk whom they controlled. It was on this
occasion that Alice in turn told Theron she was sure Mrs. Soulsby had
false teeth--a confidence which she immediately regretted as an act of
treachery to her sex.

On Saturday afternoon, toward evening, Brother Soulsby arrived, and was
guided to the parsonage by his wife, who had gone to the depot to meet
him. They must have talked over the situation pretty thoroughly on the
way, for by the time the new-comer had washed his face and hands and
put on a clean collar, Sister Soulsby was ready to announce her plan of
campaign in detail.

Her husband was a man of small stature and, like herself, of uncertain
age. He had a gentle, if rather dry, clean-shaven face, and wore his
dust-colored hair long behind. His little figure was clad in black
clothes of a distinctively clerical fashion, and he had a white
neck-cloth neatly tied under his collar. The Wares noted that he looked
clean and amiable rather than intellectually or spiritually powerful, as
he took the vacant seat between theirs, and joined them in concentrating
attention upon Mrs. Soulsby.

This lady, holding herself erect and alert on the edge of the low, big
easy-chair had the air of presiding over a meeting.

"My idea is," she began, with an easy implication that no one else's
idea was needed, "that your Quarterly Conference, when it meets on
Monday, must be adjourned to Tuesday. We will have the people all out
tomorrow morning to love-feast, and announcement can be made there, and
at the morning service afterward, that a series of revival meetings are
to be begun that same evening. Mr. Soulsby and I can take charge in the
evening, and we'll see to it that THAT packs the house--fills the church
to overflowing Monday evening. Then we'll quietly turn the meeting into
a debt-raising convention, before they know where they are, and we'll
wipe off the best part of the load. Now, don't you see," she turned her
eyes full upon Theron as she spoke, "you want