t few moments of shyness before so
large an audience, the girl looked about her openly, bridling, pleased
with the attention she was attracting in her new dress and with her new
baby. If there was menace in those staring faces, the Madam was there to
protect her. It was no new thing to the girl to be prayed over; this had
come to be an attention she expected from preachers. Young as she was,
there had been good reason for her leaving the town from which she came
to Storm. But a whole sermon about herself, right out in church! It was
a proud moment for Mag.

Benoix, his eyes on her face, sighed even as he spoke, realizing the
probable hopelessness of Mrs. Kildare's effort.

The congregation was free to leave at the close of the regular service,
without waiting for the christening. But it did not leave. For one
thing, there was the Madam to be welcomed to church--excuse enough for
those who needed excuse. To their shocked surprise the child was
christened by the Madam's own name, "Katherine."

Afterwards, to each of the women who shook her hand, Kate said some such
thing as this:

"You know Mag Henderson here, don't you? We've discovered that she is
quite a wonderful dressmaker. Yes, she made the dress I have on, and
those my girls are wearing. She is a stranger among us, too, so that of
course we must find her plenty of work. That is only hospitable."

Kate knew her people when she appealed to their hospitality. Many a
village gossip, many a virtuous farmer's wife who had pursed her lips
and kept her skirts from degrading contact with the notorious Mag
Henderson, found herself pledged to employ the Madam's protegee for her
next dressmaking.

"It does beat all," Mrs. Sykes was heard to murmur helplessly, "how that
woman gets folks to do whatever she wants 'em to! 'Birds of a feather,'
_I_ say. But there! If she's willin' to give that misbegotten child her
own Christian name, it won't do for the rest of us to be too
toploftical. And them girls," she added, "certainly do dress stylish."

Philip usually took his Sunday dinner at Storm, and the congregation had
the further privilege of watching their rector drive away in the same
surrey with the Madam and Mag, apparently upon the most intimate and
cordial relations with Mag's infant.

Mrs. Kildare, more sensitive of disapproving eyes for her friends than
for herself, suggested that he come home with Jemima and Jacqueline
instead.

"I'm a little uneasy about the mar