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glanced up at the windows, and went away looking graver than when
they came.
Erica lost count of time altogether. The past seemed blotted out;
the weight of the present was so great that she would not admit any
thought of the future, though conscious always of a blank dread
which she dared not pause to analyze, sufficient indeed for her day
was the evil thereof. She struggled on somehow with a sort of
despairing strength; only once or twice did she even recollect the
outside world.
It happened that on the first Wednesday after the Hyde Park meeting
some one mentioned the day of the week in her hearing. She was in
the sickroom at the time, but at once remembered that her week's
work was untouched, that she had not written a line for the
IdolBreaker. Every idea seemed to have gone out of her head;
for a minute she felt that to save her life she could not write a
line. But still she conscientiously struggled to remember what
subject had been allotted her, and in the temporary stillness of
the first nightwatch drew writing materials toward her, and leaned
her head on her hands until, almost by an effort of will, she at
length recalled the theme for her article.
Of course! It was to be that disgraceful disturbance in the church
at Z______. She remembered the whole affair now, it all rose up
before her graphically not a bad subject at all! Their party might
make a good deal by it. Her article must be bright, descriptive,
sarcastic. Yet how was she to write such an article when her heart
felt like lead? An involuntary I can't rose to her lips, and
she glanced at her father's motionless form, her eyes filling with
tears. Then one of his sayings came to her mind: No such word as
'Can't' in the dictionary, and began to write rapidly almost
defiantly. No sooner had she begun than her very exhaustion, the
lateness of the hour, and the stress of circumstance came to her
aid she had never before written so brilliantly.
The humor of the scene struck her; little flashes of mirth at the
expense of both priest and people, delicate sarcasms, the more
searching from their very refinement, awoke in her brain and were
swiftly transcribed. In the middle of one of the most daring
sentences Raeburn stirred. Erica's pen was thrown down at once;
she was at his side absorbed once more in attending to his wants,
forgetful quite of religious controversy, of theIdolBreaker, of
anything in fact in the whole world but her father. Not till an
hour had passed was she free to finish her writing, but by the time
her aunt came to relieve guard at two o'clock the article was

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