asked her what she thought of the sermon, and she said, "Well, it wasn't
religion exactly--not what I call religion--not a 'reg'lar rousing
rampage for sowls,' as old Chalse used to say, but----"

"Glory," he said impetuously, "I'm to preach my first sermon on
Wednesday."

He did not ask her to come, but inquired if she was on night duty. She
answered No, and then somebody called her.

"She'll be there," he told himself, and he walked home with uplifted
head. He would look for her; he would catch her eye; she would see that
it was not necessary to be ashamed of him again.

And then close behind, very close, came recollections of her appearance.
He could reconstruct her new dress by memory--her face was easy to
remember. "After all, beauty is a kind of virtue," he thought. "And all
natural friendship is good for the progress of souls if it is built upon
the love of God."

He wrote nothing and learned nothing by heart. The only preparation he
made for his sermon was thought and prayer. When the Wednesday night came
he was very nervous. But the church was nearly empty, and the vergers,
who were in their everyday clothes, had only partially lit up the nave.
The canon had done him the honour to be present; his fellow-curates read
the prayers and lessons.

As he ascended the pulpit he thought he saw the white bonnets of a group
of nurses in the dim distance of one of the aisles, but he did not see
Glory and he dared not look again. His text was, "My kingdom is not of