the pianist. While he remained true to Sharon, he had cumulatively been feeling that it was sheer carelessness to let the pretty and anemic and virginal Lily be wasted. He had been driven to notice her through indignation at Art Nichols, the cornetist, for having the same idea.
Elmer was fascinated by her unawakenedness. While he continued to be devoted to Sharon, over her shoulder he was always looking at Lily's pale sweetness, and his lips were moist.
They sat on the beach by moonlight, Sharon and Elmer, the night before the opening service.
All of Clontar, with its mile of comfortable summer villas and gingerbread hotels, was excited over the tabernacle, and the Chamber of Commerce had announced, "We commend to the whole Jersey coast this high-class spiritual feature, the latest addition to the manifold attractions and points of interest at the snappiest of all summer colonies."
A choir of two hundred had been coaxed in, and some of them had been persuaded to buy their own robes and mortar boards.
Near the sand dune against which Sharon and Elmer lolled was the tabernacle, over which the electric cross turned solemnly, throwing its glare now on the rushing surf, now across the bleak sand.
"And it's mine!" Sharon trembled. "I've made it! Four thousand seats, and I guess it's the only Christian tabernacle built out over the water! Elmer, it almost scares me! So much responsibility! Thousands of poor troubled souls turning to me for help, and if I fail them, if I'm weak or tired or greedy, I'll be murdering their very souls. I almost wish I were back safe in Virginia!"
Her enchanted voice wove itself with the menace of the breakers, feeble against the crash of broken waters, passionate in the lull, while the great cross turned its unceasing light.
"And I'm ambitious, Elmer. I know it. I want the world. But I realize what an awful danger that is. But I never had anybody to train me. I'm just nobody. I haven't any family, any education. I've had to do everything for myself, except what Cecil and you and another man or two have done, and
