As Marion came nearer she recognized Mr. Haley’s voice. He was talking earnestly and sensibly in his eloquent manner.
At the close of his exhortation he started a hymn. It was an old familiar air that Marion had known all her life, and in an instant it took her back to her home in the country. For just one brief minute the old farm rose up before her. Then came a vision of Silas Johnson turning the old people out and then she thought suddenly of Dollie and her own utter helplessness.
A wave of emotion swept through every fibre of her body.
She must give vent to her sorrow or go mad with grief.
Before she knew it her lips were opened and she joined heart and soul in the singing.
CHAPTER XIII.
MARION’S FIRST ENGAGEMENT AS A SINGER.
At the very moment in which Marion opened her lips to sing two men turned the corner of the street, walking directly toward the preacher.
One was a man of thirty, of Hebrew origin, whose affluent circumstances were plainly apparent.