Mrs.Snyder's curved smile became set, her eyes absent.

She was revolving her lecture in her mind, making sure that she could repeat it without the assistance of the notes in her petticoat pocket.
Then a woman rang a little silver bell, and a woman who sat short but rose to unexpected heights stood up.

The phenomenon was amazing, but all the Fairbridge ladies had seen Miss Bessy Dicky, the secretary of the Zenith Club, rise before, and no one observed anything remarkable about it.

Only Mrs.Snyder's mouth twitched a little, but she instantly recovered herself and fixed her absent eyes upon Miss Bessy Dicky's long, pale face as she began to read the report of the club for the past year.
She had been reading several minutes, her glasses fixed firmly (one of her eyes had a cast) and her lean, veinous hands trembling with excitement, when the door bell rang with a sharp peremptory peal.
There was a little flutter among the ladies.

Such a thing had never happened before.