The majority of them seemed to be either servant-girls or women who had passed the adventurous period of life and had passed it without adventure.

When the time for the sermon arrived Mr.Warlock prayed, his head bowed, during a moment's silence, then leaning forward on his desk repeated some of the words of his earlier reading: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: ...

say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!...
What followed was practical, eloquent, the preaching of a man who had through the course of a long life addressed men of all kinds and in all places.

But behind the facility and easy flow of his words Maggie fancied that she detected some urgent insistence that came from the man's very heart.