pillows and let them pour
down her cheeks without protest or effort at self-control. Every nerve
of her strong, healthy body ached for the love and companionship of men
which she had denied herself with an iron will. At nineteen it had been
easy. The sheer animal joy in life had been enough. With the growth of
each year the ache within had become more and more insistent. With each
ripening season of body and mind, the hunger of love had grown more
and more maddening. How long could she keep up this battle with every
instinct of her being?

She rose at last, determined to go to Jane, confess that she had been
a fool, and step out into the new world, New York's world, and begin to
live.

She seized her hat and furs and put them on with feverish haste.

"God knows it's time I began--I'll be an old maid in another year and
dry up--ugh!"

She looked in the quaint oval mirror that hung beside her door and
lifted her head with a touch of pride.

She had reached the street and started for the Broadway car before she
suddenly remembered that Jane was "dining with a dangerous man."

She couldn't turn back to that little room tonight without new courage.
Her decision was instantaneous. She couldn't surrender to the flesh and
the devil by yielding to Jane.

She would go to prayer-meeting!

Religion had always been a very real thing in her life. Her father was a
Methodist presiding elder. She would have gone to the meeting tonight
in the first place but for the snow. Dr. Craddock, the new sensational
pastor of the Temple, was giving a series of Wednesday-night talks that
had aroused wide interest and drawn immense crowds.

His theme tonight was one that promised all sorts of sensations--"The
Woman of the Future." The only trouble with the Doctor was that the
substance of his discourses sometimes failed to make good the startling
suggestions of his titles. No matter--she would go. She felt a sense of
righteous pride infighting her way to the church through the first storm
of the winter.

In spite of the snow the church was crowded. The subject announced had
evidently touched a vital spot in modern life. More people were thinking
about "The Woman of the Future" than she had suspected. The crowd sat
with eager, upturned faces.

The first half-hour's prayer and song service had just begun.
Mary joined in the singing of the stirring evangelistic hymns with
enthusiasm. Something in their battle-cry melody caught her spirit