Her mother had often admonished Harry Edgham that when Maria went to meeting alone, he ought to be in waiting to go home with her, and he obeyed his wife, generally speaking, unless her wishes conflicted too strenuously with his own.

He did not in the least object to-night, for instance, to dropping late into the prayer-meeting.

There were not many people there, and all the windows were open, and there was something poetical and sweet about the atmosphere.

Besides, the singing was unusually good for such a place.

Above all the other voices arose Ida Slome's sweet soprano.