I shall retire to the library for a cigar." He went out of the dining-room and there was silence for a moment.
Madam Page waited until the servant had brought in something and then asked her to go out.

She was angry and her anger was formidable, although checked in some measure by the presence of Rachel.
"I am older by several years than you, young ladies," she said, and her traditional type of bearing seemed to Rachel to rise up like a great frozen wall between her and every conception of Jesus as a sacrifice.

"What you have promised, in a spirit of false emotion I presume, is impossible of performance." "Do you mean, grandmother, that we cannot possibly act as our Lord would?
or do you mean that, if we try to, we shall offend the customs and prejudices of society ?" asked Virginia.
"It is not required! It is not necessary! Besides how can you act with any--" Madam Page paused, broke off her sentence, and then turned to Rachel.

"What will your mother say to your decision?
My dear, is it not foolish?
What do you expect to do with your voice anyway ?" "I don't know what mother will say yet," Rachel answered, with a great shrinking from trying to give her mother's probable answer.

If there was a woman in all Raymond with great ambitions for her daughter's success as a singer, Mrs.Winslow was that woman.
"Oh! you will see it in a different light after wiser thought of it.
My dear," continued Madam Page rising from the table, "you will live to regret it if you do not accept the concert company's offer or something like it.".