“No!  No!” she said aloud.  “He had no right to speak after all that!  He should have respected the place where our thoughts should have been.  I am sure I do not love him—­not enough to give him my life!”

And after she had thus spoken, the evening’s experience at the tent came crowding in again, thrusting out all other things.  It is perhaps the most striking evidence of the tremendous spiritual factor which had now entered the Rectangle that Rachel felt, even when the great love of a strong man had come very near to her, that the spiritual manifestation moved her with an agitation far greater than anything Jasper had felt for her personally or she for him.

The people of Raymond awoke Sunday morning to a growing knowledge of events which were beginning to revolutionize many of the regular, customary habits of the town.  Alexander Powers’ action in the matter of the railroad frauds had created a sensation not only in Raymond but throughout the country.  Edward Norman’s daily changes of policy in the conduct of his paper had startled the community and caused more comment than any recent political event.  Rachel Winslow’s singing at the Rectangle meetings had made a stir in society and excited the wonder of all her friends.

Virginia’s conduct, her presence every night with Rachel, her absence from the usual circle of her wealthy, fashionable acquaintances, had furnished a great deal of material for gossip and question.  In addition to these events which centered about these persons who were so well known, there had been all through the city in very many homes and in business and social circles strange happenings.  Nearly one hundred persons in Henry Maxwell’s church had made the pledge to do everything after asking:  “What would Jesus do?” and the result had been, in many cases, unheard-of actions.  The city was stirred as it had never been before.  As a climax to the week’s events had come the spiritual manifestation at the Rectangle, and the announcement which came to most people before church time of the actual conversion at the tent of nearly fifty of the worst characters in that neighborhood, together with the con version of Rollin Page, the well-known society and club man.

It is no wonder that under the pressure of all this the First Church of Raymond came to the morning service in a condition that made it quickly sensitive to any large truth.  Perhaps nothing had astonished the people more than the great change that had come over the minister, since he had proposed to them the imitation of Jesus in conduct.  The dramatic delivery of his sermons no longer impressed them.  The self-satisfied, contented, easy attitude of the fine figure and refined face in the pulpit had been displaced by a manner that could not be compared with the old style of his delivery.  The sermon had become a message.  It was no longer delivered.  It was brought to them with a love, an earnestness, a passion, a desire,