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This man came into Alex Randall’s house with no odor of sanctity about him, and with no knowledge of an unhappy past. Matilda had grown older and stooped more, and her knot of sandy hair was less luxuriant than it had once been, but there were no peevish, fretful lines on her face. It began to grow young again now that she saw Alex becoming “such friends with the minister.” Mary Frances was a tall, round-shouldered girl, teaching the summer school, and Wattie was a sturdy boy in roundabouts, galloping over the farm, clinging horizontally to half-broken colts, and suffering from a perpetual peeling of the skin from his sunburned nose. Matilda was proud of her children. She hoped it was not an ungodly pride. She knelt very often on the braided rug, and buried her worn face in the side of her towering feather bed, while she prayed earnestly that they might honor their father and their mother, that their days might be long in the land which the Lord their God had given them. If she laid a stress upon the word “father,” was it to be wondered at? And the children did honor their father so far as she knew. If he would only join the church, and share with her the responsibility of their precious souls! It had been hard for her, when Wattie was baptized, to stand there alone and feel the pitying looks of the congregation behind her. Her pulse quickened now at every announcement of communion, and she listened with renewed hopefulness when Mr. Anderson leaned forward in the pulpit and gave the solemn invitation to those who had sat under the kindly influence of the gospel for many years untouched to shake off their soul-destroying lethargy, and come forward and enroll themselves on the Lord’s side.

It was the Friday after one of these appeals that Alex came into the kitchen and said awkwardly,–

“I guess I’ll change my clothes, Matildy, and go over t’ the church this afternoon and meet the Session.”

She felt the burden of years lifted from her shoulders. She said simply,–

“I’m real glad of it, Elick. You’ll find two shirts in the middle drawer. I think the under one’s the best.”

Matilda went back to her work, and thought how the stain would be wiped away. “They’ll have to give in that he’s a good man now,” she said to herself. She fought with the smile that would curve her lips. The minister would announce it on Sabbath. “By letter from sister congregations,” and then the names; and then, “On profession of faith, Alexander Randall.” She tried to stifle her pride. It must be pride, she said,–it must be something evil that could make her so very, very happy.

III.

It was late when Alex came home, and he did the chores after supper. Mary Frances and Wattie had gone to singing-school and Matilda was alone in the kitchen when her husband came in. He sat down on the doorstep, with his back to her and his head down, and stuck the blade of his jack-knife into the pine step between his feet. There was a long silence, and when he spoke his voice had a husky embarrassment.

“There’s something I suppose I’d ought to have talked to you about all this time, Matildy, but somehow I couldn’t seem to do it. I had a talk with Mr. Anderson, and he brought it up before the Session, and they didn’t seem to think anything more need to be said about it. It’s all dead and gone now, and of course you know I’ve been sorry time and time and again. I don’t suppose I ought to say it, but it wasn’t altogether my fault. She never did act right, but then, of course”–

” Elick! “

The man heard his name in a quick gasp behind him. He turned and looked up. Matilda was standing over him, with a white, distorted face.