evious evening--going
forward before all eyes to join the unconverted and penitent sinners, as
if she were some tramp or shady female, instead of an educated lady, a
professing member from her girlhood, and a minister's wife. It crossed
his mind that probably she had risen and got away noiselessly, for very
shame at looking him in the face, after such absurd behavior.

Then he remembered more, and grasped the situation. He had fainted in
church, and had been brought home and helped to bed. Dim memories of
unaccustomed faces in the bedroom, of nauseous drugs and hushed voices,
came to him out of the night-time. Now that he thought of it, he was a
sick man. Having settled this, he went off to sleep again, a feverish
and broken sleep, and remained in this state most of the time for the
following twenty-four hours. In the brief though numerous intervals of
waking, he found certain things clear in his mind. One was that he was
annoyed with Alice, but would dissemble his feelings. Another was that
it was much pleasanter to be ill than to be forced to attend and take
part in those revival meetings. These two ideas came and went in a lazy,
drowsy fashion, mixing themselves up with other vagrant fancies, yet
always remaining on top.

In the evening the singing from the church next door filled his room.
The Soulsbys' part of it was worth keeping awake for. He turned over and
deliberately dozed when the congregation sang.

Alice came up a number of times during the day to ask how he felt, and
to bring him broth or toast-water. On several occasions, when he heard
her step, the perverse inclination mastered him to shut his eyes, and
pretend to be asleep, so that she might tip-toe out again. She had a
depressed and thoughtful air, and spoke to him like one whose mind was
on something else. Neither of them alluded to what had happened the
previous evening. Toward the close of the long day, she came to ask him
whether he would prefer her to remain in the house, instead of attending
the meeting.

"Go, by all means," he said almost curtly.

The Presiding Elder and the Sunday-school superintendent called early
Tuesday morning at the parsonage to make brotherly inquiries, and
Theron was feeling so much better that he himself suggested their
coming upstairs to see him. The Elder was in good spirits; he
smiled approvingly, and even put in a jocose word or two while the
superintendent sketched for the invalid in a cheerful way the leadin