ite
dress, and she began to cry.

First of all she wept silently, and the tears dropped slowly from her
eyes, but her emotion in creased with her recollections, and she began
to sob. She took out her pocket handkerchief, wiped her eyes and held it
to her mouth, so as not to scream, but it was in vain. A sort of
rattle escaped her throat, and she was answered by two other profound,
heartbreaking sobs, for her two neighbors, Louise and Flora, who were
kneeling near her, overcome by similar recollections, were sobbing by
her side, amid a flood of tears; and as tears are contagious, Madame
Tellier soon in turn found that her eyes were wet, and on turning to
her sister-in-law, she saw that all the occupants of her seat were also
crying.

Soon, throughout the church, here and there, a wife, a mother, a sister,
seized by the strange sympathy of poignant emotion, and affected at
the sight of those handsome ladies on their knees, shaken with sobs
was moistening her cambric pocket handkerchief and pressing her beating
heart with her left hand.

Just as the sparks from an engine will set fire to dry grass, so the
tears of Rosa and of her companions infected the whole congregation in
a moment. Men, women, old men and lads in new smocks were soon all
sobbing, and something superhuman seemed to be hovering over their
heads--a spirit, the powerful breath of an invisible and all powerful
Being.

Suddenly a species of madness seemed to pervade the church, the noise
of a crowd in a state of frenzy, a tempest of sobs and stifled cries.
It came like gusts of wind which blow the trees in a forest, and the
priest, paralyzed by emotion, stammered out incoherent prayers, without
finding words, ardent prayers of the soul soaring to heaven.

The people behind him gradually grew calmer. The cantors, in all the
dignity of their white surplices, went on in somewhat uncertain voices,
and the reed stop itself seemed hoarse, as if the instrument had been
weeping; the priest, however, raised his hand to command silence and
went and stood on the chancel steps, when everybody was silent at once.

After a few remarks on what had just taken place, and which he
attributed to a miracle, he continued, turning to the seats where
the carpenter's guests were sitting; "I especially thank you, my dear
sisters, who have come from such a distance, and whose presence among
us, whose evident faith and ardent piety have set such a salutary
example to all. You h