this manner of town. At times his voice was low and tense, at times his
tones grew thunderous. And every word he said he felt was true, or
thought was true, or hoped to be the truth; because he himself had
written it; and this was the Lord's day; and these were the services
wherein the Lord is worshiped regularly.

But the music of the anthem remained in Aurora Lane's soul, so that she
was practically unconscious of all this. Her mind was vague, dazed. She
did not know her son had been tried and found guilty. The words clung in
her heart; "All ye"; "Whosoever." And presently they sang yet another
hymn, and in it again were the words, "Come unto Me!" There was great
emotional uplift in all Spring Valley this day. The minister felt the
emotion, here upon the souls of his audience. He prayed for what he
termed an awakening.

But Aurora was not awakened. On the contrary, for a time her strained
senses seemed dull, relaxed. Only she heard the music, only the Divine
words still lingered in her consciousness. It seemed but a moment to her
before she saw all the others rising noisily, opening hymn books, for
the final hymn. She herself therefore rose and stood silently, her hands
folded before her, her eyes fixed forward. They sang a dismissal hymn.
Perhaps there were some who really praised God, from Whom all blessings
flow. The minister raised his hands in that benediction which sent them
all away full of a sense of duty done, albeit a trifle guilty as to that
moral awakening regarding which the minister righteously had upbraided
them.

All this was but the usual and regular experience of the congregation.
To this woman, this outcast, the unconscious object of the wrath so
lately uttered from the pulpit, it had been a great and gracious
experience. Yes, she said to herself, she had been one of these others!
She was within sight and touch of other women. There were boys and
girls, young human beings, close to her, all about her. And nothing had
happened to her after all!

Her precious words, assimilated rather from the hymns than from the
sermon, were uppermost in her consciousness as, absorbed, almost
unseeing, she stepped out once more into the vestibule. "All ye ...
_All_ ye...."

Many passed her; none addressed her; a few drew aside their gowns as she
came near. All stared. A sort of commotion therefore existed in the back
portion of the vestibule as she emerged. The eyes of many young men
were upon her boldly, curi