now how it came about; or, rather, I _do_ know, but it was so
sudden, and so far away from my thoughts, that it shocked me, like the
world turned over. It was at prayers. That night I remember Fedderson
was uncommon long-winded. We'd had a batch of newspapers out by the
tender, and at such times the old man always made a long watch of it,
getting the world straightened out. For one thing, the United States
minister to Turkey was dead. Well, from him and his soul, Fedderson got
on to Turkey and the Presbyterian college there, and from that to
heathen in general. He rambled on and on, like the surf on the ledge,
_woom-woom-woom_, never coming to an end.

You know how you'll be at prayers sometimes. My mind strayed. I counted
the canes in the chair-seat where I was kneeling; I plaited a corner of
the table-cloth between my fingers for a spell, and by and by my eyes
went wandering up the back of the chair.

The woman, sir, was looking at me. Her chair was back to mine, close,
and both our heads were down in the shadow under the edge of the table,
with Fedderson clear over on the other side by the stove. And there were
her two eyes hunting mine between the spindles in the shadow. You won't
believe me, sir, but I tell you I felt like jumping to my feet and
running out of the room--it was so queer.

I don't know what her husband was praying about after that. His voice
didn't mean anything, no more than the seas on the ledge away down
there. I went to work to count the canes in the seat again, but all my
eyes were in the top of my head. It got so I couldn't stand it. We were
at the Lord's prayer, saying it singsong together, when I had to look up
again. And there her two eyes were, between the spindles, hunting mine.
Just then all of us were saying, "Forgive us our trespasses--" I thought
of it afterward.

When we got up she was turned the other way, but I couldn't help seeing
her cheeks were red. It was terrible. I wondered if Fedderson would
notice, though I might have known he wouldn't--not him. He was in too
much of a hurry to get at his Jacob's-ladder, and then he had to tell me
for the tenth time what the Inspector'd said that day about getting him
another light--Kingdom Come, maybe, he said.

I made some excuse or other and got away. Once in the store-room, I sat
down on my cot and stayed there a long time, feeling queerer than
anything. I read a chapter in the Bible, I don't know why. After I'd got
my boots off I s