She seemed to have forgotten
her surroundings. Her soul was holding converse with the Eternal. He
lost sight of the coarse and fleshly habiliments in the glimpse he
caught of the soul that lived within, pure, it seemed to him, tender,
and good. His heart went out to the girl in a new pity. Before the hymn
was done she turned her face towards him, and, whether it was the magic
of her voice, or the glorious splendour of her eyes, or the mystic touch
of the fast darkening night, her face seemed to have lost much of its
coarseness and all of its stupidity.
As the congregation dispersed, Cameron, in silence, and with the spell
of her voice still upon him, walked quietly beside Mandy towards the gap
in the fence leading to the high road. Behind him came Perkins with his
group of friends, chaffing with each other and with the girls walking
in front of them. As Cameron was stepping over the rails where the
fence had been let down, one of the young men following stumbled heavily
against him, nearly throwing him down, and before he could recover
himself Perkins had taken his place by Mandy's side and seized her arm.
There was a general laugh at what was considered a perfectly fair and
not unusual piece of jockeying in the squiring of young damsels. The
proper procedure in such a case was that the discomfited cavalier should
bide his time and serve a like turn upon his rival, the young lady
meanwhile maintaining an attitude purely passive.
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