She  may  have  continued  kneeling  there,  motionless,  for  some
quarter-hour  more ;  in  itself  the  act  of  suspense  is  an  absorb-
ing one.  So  much  was  I  possessed  by  it  that  I  forgot  all
beside  it  —  that  I  was  a  lover,  not  of  this  shrouded  unknown,
that  I  was  penniless  and  outcast,  that  I  was  hungry,  ignorant,
uncertain,   unforgivcn.     I   think  that,   in   some   indefinable


I02  THE   FOOL   ERRANT

way,  the  spirit  of  Aurelia  may  have  been  about  me,  pervad-
ing this  cold  church,  hnking  me  and  that  other;  I  think  that
Aureha's  soul  may  have  whispered  to  mine,  "Behold  thy
duty  there."  I  cannot  tell.  But  this  I  may  say  with  truth,
that  when  the  thin  hands  at  the  rail  unclasped  and  one  made
the  cross  over  the  form  that  knelt  so  lonely  there ;  when  the
woman  lifted  her  head,  and  slowly  rising,  turned  and  came
up  the  church;  when  our  looks  met,  and  I  found  my  eyes
searching  the  grave  face  and  sombre  eyes  of  Virginia,  that
unhappy  child  for  whom  I  had  spent  my  last  gold  piece  —
I  was  neither  startled  nor  disappointed,  but  felt  rather  that  I
had  known  all  along  that  it  was  she.
