But there was no answering smile on his father-in-law's face.

"Twt, twt," he said, "there is no need of gloves for me, and I won't
wear my best hat, give me my old one."

He sighed heavily as with bent head, and hands buried deep in his coat
pockets, he followed Ann and her husband down the stony road to the
valley where Penmorien Chapel lay. It was one of the unlovely square
buildings so much affected by the Welsh Dissenters, its walls of grey
stone differing little in appearance and colour from the rocky bed of
the hill which had been quarried out for its site.

As the Garthowen family entered, led by the preacher hat in hand, there
was a little movement of interest in the thronging congregation, and a
settling down to their prospective enjoyment, for an eloquent sermon
possesses for the Welsh the intense charm of a good drama. The
familiar pictures of every-day life with which the sermon is frequently
illustrated, the vivid word-painting, the tender but firm touch which
plays upon the chords of their strongest emotions, all combine to
awaken within them those feelings of pleasurable excitement, denied to
them through the medium of the forbidden theatre.

Gwilym Morris was heart and soul a preacher, full of burning zeal for
his mission, and, moreover, at this period of his ministry he was
passing through a crisis in his spiritual life--a crisis which left him
with a broader field of vision, and more enlightened views of God's
Providence than he had hitherto dared to adopt. As he passed up the
pulpit stairs and saw the thronging mass of eager faces upraised to
his, a subtle influence reached him, a fervour of spirit which he knew