ening a series of revival meetings was to
be inaugurated, had been made at the love-feast, and it was repeated
now from the pulpit, with the added statement that for the once
the class-meetings usually following this morning service would be
suspended. Then Theron came down the steps, conscious after a fashion
that the Presiding Elder had laid a propitiatory hand on his shoulder
and spoken amiably about the sermon, and that several groups of more or
less important parishioners were waiting in the aisle and the vestibule
to shake hands and tell him how much they had enjoyed the sermon. His
mind perversely kept hold of the thought that all this came too late. He
politely smiled his way along out, and, overtaking the Soulsbys and his
wife near the parsonage gate, went in with them.

At the cold, picked-up noonday meal which was the Sunday rule of the
house, Theron rather expected that his guests would talk about the
sermon, or at any rate about the events of the morning. A Sabbath chill
seemed to have settled upon both their tongues. They ate almost in
silence, and their sparse remarks touched upon topics far removed from
church affairs. Alice too, seemed strangely disinclined to conversation.
The husband knew her face and its varying moods so well that he could
see she was laboring under some very powerful and deep emotion. No doubt
it was the sermon, the oratorical swing of which still tingled in his
own blood, that had so affected her. If she had said so, it would have
pleased him, but she said nothing.

After dinner, Brother Soulsby disappeared in his bedroom, with the
remark that he guessed he would lie down awhile. Sister Soulsby put
on her bonnet, and, explaining that she always prepared herself for an
evening's work by a long solitary walk, quitted the house. Alice, after
she had put the dinner things away, went upstairs, and stayed there.
Left to himself, Theron spent the afternoon in the easy-chair, and,
in the intervals of confused introspection, read "Recollections of my
Youth" through again from cover to cover.

He went through the remarkable experiences attending the opening of the
revival, when evening came, as one in a dream. Long before the hour for
the service arrived, the sexton came in to tell him that the church was
already nearly full, and that it was going to be impossible to present
any distinction in the matter of pews. When the party from the parsonage
went over--after another cold and mostly si