t singing
came to an end. There ensued a little pause, during which Theron turned
to the Presiding Elder with a gesture of invitation to take charge
of the further proceedings. The Elder responded with another gesture,
calling his attention to something going on in front.

Brother and Sister Soulsby, to the considerable surprise of everybody,
had risen to their feet, and were standing in their places, quite
motionless, and with an air of professional self-assurance dimly
discernible under a large show of humility. They stood thus until
complete silence had been secured. Then the woman, lifting her head,
began to sing. The words were "Rock of Ages," but no one present had
heard the tune to which she wedded them. Her voice was full and very
sweet, and had in it tender cadences which all her hearers found
touching. She knew how to sing, and she put forth the words so that each
was distinctly intelligible. There came a part where Brother Soulsby,
lifting his head in turn, took up a tuneful second to her air. Although
the two did not, as one could hear by listening closely, sing the same
words at the same time, they produced none the less most moving and
delightful harmonies of sound.

The experience was so novel and charming that listeners ran ahead in
their minds to fix the number of verses there were in the hymn, and
to hope that none would be left out. Toward the end, when some of the
intolerably self-conceited local singers, fancying they had caught the
tune, started to join in, they were stopped by an indignant "sh-h!"
which rose from all parts of the class-room; and the Soulsbys, with a
patient and pensive kindliness written on their uplifted faces, gave
that verse over again.

What followed seemed obviously restrained and modified by the effect of
this unlooked-for and tranquillizing overture. The Presiding Elder
was known to enjoy visits to old-fashioned congregations like that
of Octavius, where he could indulge to the full his inner passion for
high-pitched passionate invocations and violent spiritual demeanor, but
this time he spoke temperately, almost soothingly. The most tempestuous
of the local witnesses for the Lord gave in their testimony in
relatively pacific tones, under the influence of the spell which good
music had laid upon the gathering. There was the deepest interest as to
what the two visitors would do in this way. Brother Soulsby spoke first,
very briefly and in well rounded and well-chosen, if