"It  isn't  a  very  large  hall,  you  know.  I  should  say  it
would  hold  about  eight  hundred  people."

"And  —  it  was  full?"  I  persisted.
"  Oh,  yes,  there  were  numbers  of  people  standing."

I  thought  I  detected  in  her  tone  —  although  it  was  not
apologetic  —  a  desire  to  spare  my  feelings.  She  hesitated
a  moment  more,  and  then  left  the  room,  closing  the  door
softly  behind  her.  ...
Presently  I  took  up  the  pages  and  began  to  read.  The
language  was  simple  and  direct,  an  appeal  to  common  sense,
yet  the  words  strangely  seemed  charged  with  an  emotional


A  FAR  COUNTRY  455

power  that  I  found  myself  resisting.  When  at  length  I
laid  down  the  sheets  I  wondered  whether  it  were  imagination,
or  the  uncomfortable  result  of  memories  of  conversations  I
had  had  with  him.
