Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/346

 as on the first day she ever saw them. Should she wear her charm? Would it be sinful to wear it to-night? She looked in the glass and asked the question to herself. One of her minds said, "Take it off." The other mind said, "Don't be a fool, keep it on." The earrings shook and twinkled. The deacons were men who needed to be ruled in her favor to-night. She would wear the charm too.

When she reached Maum Hannah's house, the place was packed and jammed with people. The news of her finding peace had traveled fast, the crowd had come to hear her experience and to see how the deacons dealt with her. She held her head high and her eyes straight in front of her as she walked through the crowd and took her seat on the candidate's bench at one side of the fireplace facing the five deacons who sat on the other side. Andrew was dressed in his Sunday clothes and his face had a solemn look; Doll sat high up in front with the members, with her sharp little eyes on her husband.

Doll was nervous. Her hands kept clasping and unclasping, her eyelids batted fast now and then, and she kept whispering to Maum Hannah, who sat with her eyes closed, praying.

Brer Dee whispered to Andrew, who nodded his head and stroked his chin and gazed