, they are in the back room. You didn't expect them to be turned in
with the ladies, did you?"

"Well," says I, "it is customary in our State now, though it was not
formerly, when the men sat on one side at prayer-meetings, and the girls
on the other, but I didn't think that notion had got to foreign parts."

I don't think Dempster heard me clearly, for that minute his wife came
out of the room, blazing like the whole milky-way of stars.

"Why, Phoemie," says she, a-holding up both the white kid gloves she
had just buttoned on, "you don't mean to go down with that bonnet on?"

"I should think you would be ashamed to go into a conference or a
prayer-meeting with it off," says I, severely.

E. E. stared at Dempster, and he stared at her. Then he hitched up his
shoulders, and she gave her hands a little toss in the air.

I didn't seem to notice their antics, but went with them downstairs,
where I heard the sound of music, which didn't strike me as so sacred as
it ought to be. Besides, there was a buzz and a hum like a hive of bees
swarming, which was puzzling.

When we went into the great, long room, that seemed running over with
light, the crowded state of the congregation astonished me. There wasn't
seats enough for one quarter of the worshippers.

Sisters, I was the only one present who had studied the sacred decencies
of a bonnet and shawl. The rest were dressed--well, they weren't dressed
at all about the arms and shoulders, which shocked me dreadfully; the
mere presence of a lot of ministers ought to have made women more
decorous.

Would you believe it, the people round the doors stared at me as if they
had never seen a beehive bonnet, with feathers floating over it, before.

Some people might have felt shocked at so many eyes turned on them, but
I was in the straight and narrow path of duty, and their looks passed by
me like the idle wind. If they didn't understand the solemnity of the
occasion, I did.

"There is the Minister," says Dempster, "let us pay our respects."

"Why," says I, "there don't seem to be either a reading desk or pulpit
here!"

I don't think Dempster heard me, for he began to edge our way through
the crowd, till we got clear into the room, which was so full of flowers
and lights and music that I began to think the foreign ministers were
keeping up Easter-Sunday yet.

A gentleman was standing near the door with some ladies around him.
Dempster took us straight up to him.

"Your E