of Mrs. Innes, evidently exhorting her husband to action.

"Then all those in favour of the motion will please--"

Then from behind the organ a little voice piped up, "Does this mean, Mr.
Chairman, that we lose our minister?"

It was Miss Quigg, a lady whose years no gallantry could set below
forty, for her appearance indicated that she was long past the bloom of
her youth. She was thin, almost to the point of frailness, with sharp,
delicately cut features; but the little chin was firm, and a flash of
the brown eyes revealed a fiery soul within. Miss Quigg was the milliner
and dressmaker of the village, and was herself a walking model of her
own exquisite taste in clothes and hats. It was only her failing health
that had driven her to abandon a much larger sphere than her present
position offered, but even here her fame was such as to draw to her
little shop customers from the villages round about for many miles.

"Does this mean, sir, that Mr. Dunbar will leave us?" she repeated.

"Well,--yes, madam--that is, Miss, I suppose, in a way--practically it
would amount to that."

"Will you tell me yes or no, please," Miss Quigg's neat little figure
was all a-quiver to the tips of her hat plumes.

"Well," said the chairman, squirming under the unpleasant experience of
being forced to a definite answer, "I suppose,--yes."

Miss Quigg turned from the squirming and smiling Mr. Pilley in contempt.