to her. Her eyes wandered among the little congregation;
only one she recognised--the strangely thin and crooked lady who, as far
back as she could remember, used to walk up the aisle, her hands crossed
in front of her like a wooden doll's. She had not altered at all; she
wore the same battered black bonnet. This lonely lady had always been a
subject of curiosity to Evelyn. She remembered how she used to invent
houses for her to live in and suitable friends and evenings at home. The
day that Owen came to St. Joseph's before he went away on his yacht to
the Mediterranean, he had put his hat on this lady's chair, and she had
had to ask him to remove it. How frightened she had looked, and he not
too well pleased at having to sit beside her. That was six years ago,
and Evelyn thought how much had happened to her in that time--a great
deal to her and very little to that poor woman in the black bonnet. She
must have some little income on which she lived in a room with wax fruit
in the window. Every morning and evening she was at St. Joseph's. The
church was her one distraction; it was her theatre, the theatre
certainly of all her thoughts.

But at that moment the new choir-loft caught Evelyn's eye, and she
imagined the melodious choirs answering each other from opposite sides.
No doubt her father had insisted on the addition, so that such
antiphonal music as the Reproaches might be given. Some rich carpets had
been laid down, some painting and cleaning had been done, and the
fashionable names on the front seats reminded her of the Grand Circle at
Covent Garden. Evidently the frequentation of St. Joseph's was much the
same as the theatres. The congregation was attracted by the choirs, and,
when these were silenced, the worship shrank into the mumbled prayers of
a few Irish and Italians. Evelyn wondered if the poor lady could
distinguish between her father's music and Father Gordon's. The only
music she heard was the ceaseless music of her devout soul.

Was it not strange that the paper she had sent her father containing an
account of her success in the part of Margaret contained also an account
of his choir? They had both succeeded. The old music had made St.
Joseph's a fashionable church. So far she knew, and despite her strange
terror of their first meeting, she longed to hear him tell her how he
had overcome the opposition of Father Gordon.

The Gospel ended, the little congregation sat down, and Evelyn reflected
how muc