ord above!"

He collapsed in a chair and put his hands to his head. Lulie, the tears
streaming down her face, tried to comfort him. Martha, also weeping,
essayed to help. Cabot, walking over to where his cousin was standing,
laid a hand on his arm. Galusha, pale and wan, looking as if the world
had slipped from under him and he was left hanging in cold space, turned
a haggard face in his direction.

"Well, Loosh," said Cousin Gussie, dryly, "I think you and I had
better go home, hadn't we? This has been an interesting evening,
an--ah--illuminating evening. You appear to be the only person who can
add to the illumination, and--well, don't you think it is time you did?"

CHAPTER XXI

Galusha did not answer. He regarded his relative vacantly, opened his
mouth, closed it, sighed and turned toward the dining room. By this time
most of the congregation were already in the yard and, as Cabot and
his companion emerged into the dripping blackness of out-of-doors, from
various parts of that blackness came the clatter of tongues and the
sound of fervent ejaculations and expressions of amazement.

"Well! WELL! Don't talk to ME! If this don't beat all ever _I_ see!..."
"I should say it did! I was just sayin' to Sarah B., s' I, 'My soul and
body,' s' I, 'if this ain't--'"... "And what do you s'pose made him--"
"And when they turned up them lights and I see him standin' there
jammin' her down into that chair and wavin' that big fist of his over
top her head, thinks I, 'Good-NIGHT! He's goin' to hammer her right down
through into the cellar, don't know's he ain't!'"

These were a few fragments which Cousin Gussie caught as they pushed
their way to the gate. In one spot where a beam of light from the window
faintly illuminated the wet, he glimpsed a flowered and fruited hat
picturesquely draped over its wearer's ear while from beneath its
lopsided elegance a tearful voice was heard hysterically demanding to
be taken home. "Take me home, 'Phelia. I--I--I... Oh, take me home!
I--I--I've forgot my rubbers and--and I feel's if my hair was comin'
off--down, I mean--but--oh, I don't CARE, take me HOME!"

Galusha, apparently, heard and saw nothing of this. He blundered
straight on to the gate and thence along the road to the Phipps'
cottage. It seemed to Cabot that he found it by instinct, for the fog
was so thick that even the lighted windows could not be seen further
than a few yards. But he did find it and, at last, the two men