ds, her shoulders, her eyes.
She was fierce and hostile and ineffectual, one felt, so long as she
was by herself. Maggie did not, of course, notice all this at the time,
but in after years she always looked back on the pale, thin,
highly-strung Miss Avies as the motive of most of the events that
followed this particular evening. It was as though she felt that Miss
Avies' weight, not enough in itself to effect any result, when thrown
into the balance just turned everything in one direction. It had that
result, at any rate, upon Maggie herself.

She soon lost, however, consideration of Miss Avies in the wider
observation of the Chapel and its congregation. It was, as it had been
on the occasion of her first visit to it, stuffy, smelling of gas and
brick and painted wood, ugly in its bareness and unresponsiveness--and,
nevertheless, exciting. The interior of the building had the air of one
who has watched some most unusual happenings and expects very shortly
to watch them again. Even the harmonium seemed to prick up its wooden
ears in anticipation. And to-night the congregation thrilled also with
breathless expectation. As Maggie looked round upon them she could see
that they were throbbing with the anticipation of some almost sensuous
delight. By now they had filled the Chapel to its utmost limits, but
there was not one human being there who did not seem to have the
appearance of having been especially selected from other less
interesting human beings. It was not that the forces that surrounded
her were especially interesting, but she felt that all of them had
taken on some especial dramatic character from the occasion. Such
personalities as Aunt Anne and Miss Avies were in any case vivid and
dramatic, but to-night Aunt Elizabeth and the placidly rotund Mrs.
Smith, who was sitting in the front row with her mouth open, and simple
little Miss Pyncheon, Aunt Anne's friend, were remarkable and
exceptional.

Then suddenly Maggie caught sight of Martin. He was sitting in the
extreme right next the wall; his ill-tempered sister was next to him.
Maggie could only see his head and shoulders, but she realised at once
that he had been, for a long time, trying to catch her eye. He smiled
at her an intimate peculiar smile that sent the blood flooding to her
face and made her heart beat with happiness. At the moment of her
smiling she realised that Miss Avies' dim eye was upon her. What right
had Miss Avies to watch over her? She set