What Tom told the priest no one ever knew: such conferences are
part of the regime of the church, and go no farther. It was
noticed, however, as she came down the aisle, that her eyes were
red, as if from weeping, and that she never raised them from the
floor as she passed between her enemies on her way to the church
door. Once outside, she put her arm around Jennie, who was
waiting, and the two strolled slowly across the lots to her house.
When the priest came out, his own eyes were tinged with moisture.
He called Dennis Quigg, McGaw's right-hand man, and in a voice
loud enough to be heard by those nearest him expressed his
indignation that any dissension should have arisen among his
people over a woman's work, and said that he would hear no more of
this unchristian and unmanly interference with one whose only
support came from the labor of her hands.
McGaw and his friends were not discouraged. They were only
determined upon some more definite stroke. It was therefore
ordered that a committee be appointed to waylay her men going to
work, and inform them of their duty to their fellow-laborers.
Accordingly, this same Quigg--smooth-shaven, smirking, and
hollow-eyed, with a diamond pin, half a yard of watch-chain, and a
fancy shirt--ex-village clerk with his accounts short, ex-deputy
sheriff with his accounts of cruelty and blackmail long, and at
present walking delegate of the Union--was appointed a committee
of one for that duty.
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