"Beg pardon, ma'am," said John, "but we was waiting a bit to see the minister."
Eleanor rode home fast, through fair moonlight without and great obscurity within her own spirit. She avoided her aunt; she did not want to speak of the meeting; she succeeded in having no talk about it that I night.
CHAPTER XVIII.
AT MRS. POWLIS'S.
"I glanced within a rock's cleft breast,
A lonely, safely-sheltered nest.
There as successive seasons go,
And tides alternate ebb and flow,
Full many a wing is trained for flight
In heaven's blue field—in heaven's broad light."
The next morning at breakfast Eleanor and her aunt were alone as usual.
There was no avoiding anything.
"Did you have a pleasant evening?" Mrs. Caxton asked.
"I had a very pleasant ride, aunt Caxton."
"How was the sermon?"
"It was—I suppose it was very good; but it was very peculiar."