Charity was near one end of the stage, and from where she sat the other
end of the first row of seats was cut off by the screen of foliage
masking the harmonium. The effort to see Harney around the corner of the
screen, or through its interstices, made her unconscious of everything
else; but the effort was unsuccessful, and gradually she found her
attention arrested by her guardian's discourse.
She had never heard him speak in public before, but she was familiar
with the rolling music of his voice when he read aloud, or held forth
to the selectmen about the stove at Carrick Fry's. Today his inflections
were richer and graver than she had ever known them: he spoke slowly,
with pauses that seemed to invite his hearers to silent participation in
his thought; and Charity perceived a light of response in their faces.
He was nearing the end of his address... "Most of you," he said, "most of
you who have returned here today, to take contact with this little place
for a brief hour, have come only on a pious pilgrimage, and will go back
presently to busy cities and lives full of larger duties.
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