"Yes," said Abbie with softly glee; "isn't it splendid? I appreciate my privileges, I assure you; so many people could not do it."
"And so many people would not" Ester thought.
So they were not in to dinner with the family, but took theirs an hour earlier; and with David, whom Abbie called her body-guard, for escort, made their way to Abbie's dear little chapel, which proved to be a good-sized church, very prettily finished and furnished.
That meeting, from first to last, was a succession of surprises to Ester, commencing with the leader, and being announced to Abbie in undertone:
"Your minister is the very man who spoke to me yesterday in the depot."
Abbie nodded and smiled her surprise at this information; and Ester looked about her. Presently another whisper:
"Why, Abbie, there is the blue-ribboned girl I told you about, sitting in the third seat from the front."
"That," said Abbie, looking and whispering back, "is Fanny Ames; one of our teachers."
Presently Ester set to work to select Mr. Foster from the rows of young men who were rapidly filling the front seats in the left aisle.
"I believe that one in glasses and brown kids is he," she said to herself, regarding him curiously; and as if to reward her penetration he rose suddenly and came over, book in hand, to the seat directly in front of where they were sitting.