cool breeze filtered in, and the sound of waters, the sound of wings, as the gulls were startled from their roosts. Every one felt an exaltation in the place, a coming of marvels.
Before the meeting the gospel crew, back-stage, were excited as a theatrical company on a first night. They rushed with great rapidity nowhere in particular, and tripped over each other, and muttered, "Say—gee—gee—" To the last, Adelbert Shoop was giving needless instructions to the new pianist, who had been summoned by telegraph from Philadelphia, vice Lily Anderson. She professed immense piety, but Elmer noted that she was a pretty fluffy thing with a warm eye.
The choir was arriving along with the first of the audience. They filtered down the aisle, chattering, feeling important. Naturally, as the end of the pier gave on open water, there was no stage entrance at the back. There was only one door, through which members of opera castes had been wont to go out to the small rear platform for fresh air between acts. The platform was not connected with the promenade.
It was to this door that Sharon led Elmer. Their dressing-rooms were next to each other. She knocked—he had been sitting with a Bible and an evening paper in his lap, reading one of them. He opened, to find her flaming with exultation, a joyous girl with a dressing-gown over her chemise. Seemingly she had forgotten her anger of the night.
She cried, "Come! See the stars!" Defying the astonishment of the choir, who were filing into the chorus dressing-room to assume their white robes, she led him to the door, out on the railed platform.
The black waves glittered with lights. There was spaciousness and a windy peace upon the waters.
"Look! It's so big! Not like the cities where we've been shut up!" she exulted. "Stars, and the waves that come clear from Europe! Europe! Castles on a green shore! I've never been. And I'm going! And there'll be great crowds at the ship to meet me, asking for my power! Look!" A shooting star had left a scrawl of flame in the sky. "Elmer! It's an omen for the glory that begins tonight! Oh, dearest, my dearest, don't ever hurt me again!"
His kiss promised it, his heart almost promised it.
She was all human while they stood fronting the sea, but
