The minister paused and seemed about to resume, when a scuffling and knocking noise drew all eyes toward the pew of the Gerrish family. Mr. Gerrish had risen and flung open the door so sharply that it struck against the frame-work of the pew, and he stood pulling his children, whom Mrs. Gerrish urged from behind, one after another, into the aisle beside him. One of them had been asleep, and he now gave way to the alarm which seizes a small boy suddenly awakened. His mother tried to still him, stooping over him and twitching him by the hand, with repeated “Sh! 'sh's!” as mothers do, till her husband got her before him, and marched his family down the aisle and out of the door. The noise of their feet over the floor of the vestibule died away upon the stone steps outside. The minister allowed the pause he had made to prolong itself painfully. He wavered, after clearing his throat, as if to go on with his sermon, and then he said sadly, “Let us pray!” XXIII. Putney stopped with his wife and boy and waited for Annie at the corner of the street where their ways parted. She had eluded Lyra Wilmington in coming down the aisle, and she had hurried to escape the sensation which broke into eager talk among the people before they got out of church, and which began with question whether one of the Gerrish children was sick, and ended in the more satisfactory conviction that Mr. Gerrish was offended at something in the sermon. “Well, Annie,” said Putney, with a satirical smile. “Oh, Ralph--Ellen--what does it mean?” “It means that Brother Gerrish thought Mr. Peck was hitting at him in that talk about the large commerce, and it means business,” said Putney. “Brother Gerrish has made a beginning, and I guess it's the beginning of the end, unless we're all ready to take hold against him. What are you going to do?” “Do? Anything! Everything! It was abominable! It was atrocious!” she shuddered out with disgust. “How could he imagine that Mr. Peck would do such a thing?” “Well, he's imagined it. But he doesn't mean to stay out of church; he means to put Brother Peck out.” “We mustn't let him. That would be outrageous.” “That's the way Ellen and I feel about it,” said Putney; “but we don't know how much of a party there is with us.” “But everybody--everybody must feel the same way about Mr. Gerrish's behaviour? I don't see how you can be so quiet about it--you and Ellen!” Annie looked from one to another indignantly, and Putney laughed. “We're not _feeling_ quietly about it,” said Mrs. Putney. Putney took out a piece of tobacco, and bit off a large corner, and began to chew vehemently upon it. “Hello, Idella!” he said to the little girl, holding by Annie's hand and looking up intently at him, with childish interest in what he was eating. “What a pretty dress you've got on!” “It's mine,” said the child. “To keep.” “Is that so? Well, it's a beauty.” “I'm going to wear it all the time.”