mainly composed of women, and he was used to assigning them their duties
in his innocent clerical campaigns). Leaving more definite instruction,
he passed on, and his theme broadened into a peroration for which
he drew a long breath and stood very upright,--"As a drop of water,
detached, alone, separate from others, falling from the cloud and
entering the great ocean, alters, so scientists tell us, not only the
immediate spot in the ocean where it falls, but all the myriad drops
which together compose the great universe of waters, and by this means
alters the configuration of the globe and the lives of millions of sea
creatures, and finally the lives of the men and women who seek their
living upon the shores--as all this is within the compass of a single
drop of water, such as any rain shower sends in millions to lose
themselves in the earth, to lose themselves we say, but we know very
well that the fruits of the earth could not flourish without them--so
is a marvel comparable to this within the reach of each one of us, who
dropping a little word or a little deed into the great universe alters
it; yea, it is a solemn thought, _alters_ it, for good or for evil, not
for one instant, or in one vicinity, but throughout the entire race,
and for all eternity." Whipping round as though to avoid applause, he
continued with the same breath, but in a different tone of voice,--"And
now to God the Father . . ."

He gave his blessing, and then, while the solemn chords again issued
from the harmonium behind the curtain, the different people began
scraping and fumbling and moving very awkwardly and consciously towards
the door. Half-way upstairs, at a point where the light and sounds of
the upper world conflicted with the dimness and the dying hymn-tune of
the under, Rachel felt a hand drop upon her shoulder.

"Miss Vinrace," Mrs. Flushing whispered peremptorily, "stay to luncheon.