d not attend to assiduously.

She walked up the aisle, and never had the sad, strange feeling of utter
loneliness taken hold of her as it did now; it was coupled with the
apprehension of a great, overhanging danger. Her heart beat wildly; she
longed unspeakably--but for what? for her wild free forest out there,
where she ran around quick as a deer? or for what?

She walked up toward the choir and approached the altar railing. "Here
at least--I remember that once--but that was long ago, and it stands
like a shadow before my memory--I saw many people kneel here: it must
have been of some use to them? Suppose I did likewise?"

Nevertheless she thought it would be improper for her to kneel down on
the decorated cushions around the chancel. She folded her hands and
knelt outside of the choir on the bare stone floor. But what more was
she to do or say now? Of what use was it all? Where was she to turn?

She knew nothing. She looked down into her own thoughts as into an
immense, silent dwelling. Feelings of sorrow and a sense of transiency
moved in slow swells, like shining, breaking waves, through her
consciousness. "Oh--something to lean on--a help--where? where? where?"

She looked quietly about her; she saw nobody. She was sure to meet the
most awful danger when the door was opened, if help did not come first.

She turned her eyes back toward the organ, and in her thoughts she
besought grace of the straight, long, shining pipes. But all their
mouths were silent now.

She looked up to the pulpit; nobody was standing there. In the pews
nobody. She had sent everybody away from here and from herself.

She turned her head again toward the choir. She remembered that when she
had seen so many gathered here, two ministers in vestments had moved
about inside of the railing and had offered the kneeling worshipers
something. No doubt to help them! But now--there was nobody inside
there. To be sure she was kneeling here with folded hands and praying
eyes; but there was nobody, nobody, nobody who offered her the least
little thing. She wept.

She looked out of the great church windows to the clear noonday sky;
her eyes beheld the delicate azure light which spread itself over
everything far, far away, but on nothing could her eyes rest. There were
no stars to be seen now, and the sun itself was hidden by the window
post, although its mild golden light flooded the world.

She looked away again, and her eyes sank to the ground.