A great whispering ran through the audience. Very many recognised him,
and all had heard of him--the history of his late banishment and
self-approving punishment were familiar to them. He climbed the steps of
the platform alertly, and the chairman welcomed him with nervous
pleasure. Any word from a Quaker, friendly to the feeling of national
indignation, would give the meeting the new direction which all desired.
Something in the face of the young man, grown thin and very pale during
the period of long thought and little food in the lonely and meditative
life he had led; something human and mysterious in the strange tale of
his one day's mad doings, fascinated them. They had heard of the liquor
he had drunk, of the woman he had kissed at the cross-roads, of the man
he had fought, of his discipline and sentence. His clean, shapely figure,
and the soft austerity of the neat grey suit he wore, his broad-brimmed
hat pushed a little back, showing well a square white forehead--all
conspired to send a wave of feeling through the audience, which presently
broke into cheering.
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