pearls and opals, which he carried in his pockets and handled with
the tenderness of a lover, were his hobbies. He had in a marked
degree the peculiar power of attracting children and animals, and
all women liked him instinctively from the first.

But to-night he was not himself. After a brief prayer at the close
of the sermon he dismissed the crowd with the announcement of an
after-meeting for those personally interested in religion.

As the people poured out through the open doors the unceasing roar
of the great city's life swept in drowning the soft strains of
the organ--the jar and whir of wheels, the wheeze of brakes, the
tremor of machinery, the rumble of cab, the clatter of hoof-beat,
the cry of child and hackman, the haunting murmur of millions like
the moan of the sea borne on breezes winged with the odours of
saloon and kitchen, stable and sewer--the crash of a storm of brute
forces on the senses, tearing the nerves, crushing the spirit,
bruising the soul, and strangling the memory of a sane life.

Gordon frowned and shivered as he sat waiting for the crowd to go,
and a look of depression swept his face.

These after-meetings for personal appeal were a regular feature
of his ministry. He held them every Sunday evening, no matter how
tired he was or how hopeless the effort might seem. When the doors
were closed about a hundred people had gathered in the centre of
the church near the front.

He rose from his chair behind the altar-rail with an evident effort
to throw off his weariness. He had laid aside his pulpit robe,