He was a bearded man, and seemed to her very old.

She saw that his face looked pale and distressed; his eyes were closed, his lips tight set, like one bearing transient pain.

At the end of the table her uncle knelt upright, with hands clasped and face uplifted, no feature or muscle moving--a strong figure rapt in devotion.
On her other side, as a slight tree waves in the wind, her aunt's slim figure was swaying and bending with feeling that was now convulsive and now restrained.

Sometimes she moaned audibly or whispered "Amen." Across the richly-spread table Susannah saw the preacher kneeling in a full flickering glare of the pine fire, one hand upon the brick jamb, the other covering his eyes, as if to hide from himself all things that were seen and temporal in order that he might speak face to face with the Eternal.
It was some time before she listened to the words of the prayer.

When she heard Ephraim Croom spoken of by name, there was no room in her mind for anything but curiosity.