m, and began to make some notes. He would send them to her;
and, away from him, surely what he should say would have an added force.

Yet he could not fix his mind upon his subject. He found himself heavily
conscious of the silence of the house; and by and by he rose and went
up-stairs to their bedroom, standing drearily in the centre of the floor,
and looking about at his own loneliness. He lifted a bit of lace upon her
dressing-table, and smoothed it between his fingers, noting the faint
scent of orris which it held. Again that strange, unreasonable fear of
her absence seized him, and he was glad to go out and find some pressing
occupation to forget it.

When he started (as he had had to do of late), alone, for prayer-meeting,
his mind was dulled by its own pain of anxiety, and he went absently
through the services, saying little, and "opening" the meeting as soon as
he could. After that, he sat with head bent and arms folded, scarcely
hearing what was said.

Just before he pronounced the benediction, however, Elder Dean rose, and,
stepping with elaborate quiet to the pulpit, handed him a note, and sat
down again, covering his face with a big horny hand, and swinging one
foot nervously. John opened the folded paper, and held it up to one of
the tall lamps beside his desk, for the writing was dim and crabbed, and
the light poor, and then read a call that the Session should meet
immediately after the prayer-meeting. No object for consideration was
named, and the paper was signed by Mr. Dean and another elder. John put
it down, and, noticing that his four elders sat together on one of the
bare settees, omitted the usual request that they should all remain.

The little congregation gradually dispersed. Then Elder Dean arose, and,
creaking heavily down the aisle, closed and locked the front door, and
put out four of the lamps in the back of the room for economy's sake.
After that he sat down again on the settee beside the three other elders,
and the lecture-room was silent.

John looked up, and waited for some one to speak, then, suddenly
recalling his duty of moderator, he called the Session to order, and
asked the reason for meeting.

Mr. Johnson, who was the youngest elder in the church, shuffled his feet
under the bench, coughed slightly, and looked at his colleagues. Mr. Bent
and Mr. Smith kept their eyes upon the ground, and Mr. Dean folded and
unfolded his arms several times.

"Brethren," said the preacher, "