ncing the minister's entrance. She
was dressed in a transparent white gown with a blue ribbon wound round
her slender throat; the lamp on the organ above shed a soft glow upon a
dainty head of clustering brown curls and a face of exquisite shape and
feature.

The newcomer took this all in with a glance, experiencing a sensation
of decided pleasure, but his attention was called by his hostess, who
proceeded to introduce him to the assembly. The laughing, chattering
groups broke up and all stood back against the wall, stiff and silent,
while Mrs. Hamilton triumphantly piloted her guest down the long rows.
He shook hands cordially with all and gave a pleasant word of
recognition to the few he had met before. The young men received him
with a hasty and somewhat limp handshake and an awkward "how d'ye do;"
the young women were more graceful, but quite as diffident, and all
were painfully respectful. But there was one young man who displayed
neither awkwardness nor shyness. He stood leaning easily against the
organ, but straightened himself as the minister approached and was thus
between him and the girl at the instrument.

"This is another Mr. McDonald," Mrs. Hamilton was saying for the fifth
time, adding the usual vague explanation, "Mr. Neil More, Donald Neil
More, you know, Mr. Egerton."

Mr. Egerton did not know, but he could not help feeling that this young
man was quite capable of distinguishing himself, even though he bore an
ambiguous name. He was tall enough to let his eyes look down just a
trifle as he shook hands, but perhaps that was because of the way he
held his head. He was friendly and kind; but the young minister,
accustomed to the adulation of rural friends, somehow missed the look
of deference from his fearless dark eyes and instinctively experienced
a slight feeling of constraint.

But the next introduction was an unmixed pleasure, when a pair of sweet
grey eyes were raised for an instant to his face and Mrs. Hamilton
said, unable to keep a tremor of pride from her voice, "And this is our
Jessie, Mr. Egerton."

He was sorry that she did not speak, but she gave him her hand with an
alluring shyness, and then he understood why the Hamiltons' was such a
centre of attraction.

The introductions were finished at last and the visitor found himself
anchored rather insecurely to a slippery haircloth sofa and seated
beside a small, youngish woman with a very haughty air, who, he
learned, was the sch