e,
through the weak sister's cavern of retreat no less than round the
public assembly. What she was doing inside there--whether listening
contritely, or haughtily hastening to put on her things and get away
from the chapel and all it contained--was obviously the thought of each
member. What changes were tracing themselves upon that lovely face: did
it rise to phases of Raffaelesque resignation or sink so low as to flush
and frown? was Somerset's inquiry; and a half-explanation occurred when,
during the discourse, the door which had been ajar was gently pushed to.

Looking on as a stranger it seemed to him more than probable that this
young woman's power of persistence in her unexpected repugnance to the
rite was strengthened by wealth and position of some sort, and was
not the unassisted gift of nature. The manner of her arrival, and her
dignified bearing before the assembly, strengthened the belief. A woman
who did not feel something extraneous to her mental self to fall back
upon would be so far overawed by the people and the crisis as not to
retain sufficient resolution for a change of mind.

The sermon ended, the minister wiped his steaming face and turned down
his cuffs, and nods and sagacious glances went round. Yet many, even of
those who had presumably passed the same ordeal with credit, exhibited
gentler judgment than the preacher's on a tergiversation of which they
had probably recognized some germ in their own bosoms when in the lady's
situation.

For Somerset there was but one scene: the imagined scene of the girl
herself as she sat alone in the vestry. The fervent congregation rose
to sing again, and then Somerset heard a slight noise on his left hand
which caused him to turn his head. The brougham, which had retired
into the field to wait, was back again at the door: the subject of his
rumination came out from the chapel--not in her mystic robe of white,
but dressed in ordinary fashionable costume--followed as before by the
attendant with other articles of clothing on her arm, including the
white gown. Somerset fancied that the younger woman was drying her eyes
with her handkerchief, but there was not much time to see: they quickly
entered the carriage, and it moved on. Then a cat suddenly mewed, and
he saw a white Persian standing forlorn where the carriage had been. The
door was opened, the cat taken in, and the carriage drove away.

The stranger's girlish form stamped itself deeply on Somerset's soul