here their shepherd led. Indeed, the building of the
brick church had been a tribute to his powers and to-night's oyster
supper a kind of harvest festival to celebrate the last payment of the
church's debt.

Nevertheless an unspoken antagonism had always existed between the
Reverend Tupper and Ambrose Thompson, and indeed this was the first
appearance of the tall man within the new church's domains.

Brother Tupper was a man of only medium height, but of considerable
breadth, with cheeks as smooth and clean as a woman's. And while his
lips were thin and his eyes expressionless his face managed to give the
impression of a permanent smile, the kind of smile that can come from
but one source, having nothing to do with amusement over people or
things, nor even contentment in God's plan for His universe, but
manifests only a supreme and personal self-satisfaction.

Now for the life of him Ambrose could not refrain from frowning,
because, while his lips said, "Thank you," to himself he protested: "I
ain't able to bear it; this man actin' toward me as though _he_ was
forgivin' me some mortal sin every time we meet."

Neither was the widow's greeting of him cheering, since forty years had
not completely wiped away a certain never-explained retreat.

The promised plenitude of Peachy Williams' girlhood had been nobly
fulfilled in the Widow Tarwater, for now she suggested an abundant
harvest. A handsome black silk gown folded over her more than ample
bosom, a double chin rippled from under the soft fulness of her broad
face, her skin was white and crimson as a child's, her auburn hair
without a thread of gray in it, and her huge brown eyes never having
looked deep down into the waters of life showed none of its troubled
reflections.

Uncle Ambrose nodded approvingly at her appearance the while she looked
at him coldly, saying: "I ain't seen you to talk to in a long time,
Ambrose Thompson."

His reply flatteringly included the member of the Kentucky legislature
on the widow's right. "'Course you ain't, Peachy," he answered
gallantly, "for when big stars is shinin' so close to a planet, t'ain't
to be expected that the planet kin notice the little ones twitterin'
about in her neighbourhood."

And yet when supper was served the widow found herself placed at a table
for four whose other occupants were three men instead of the two whom
she had expected.

CHAPTER XV

ORIGINAL SIN

THE Widow Tarwater was in truth a