His presence attracted little
notice, for it was quite usual for individuals of the congregation
who were not members of the church to linger on the outskirts of
the company as spectators.
By the time the piece of bread reached Miss Horn from the other
end, it was but a fragment. She broke it in two, and, reserving
one part for herself in place of handing the remnant to the deacon
who stood ready to take it, stretched her arm across the passage,
and gave it to Mr Stewart, who had been watching the proceedings
intently. He received it from her hand, bent his head over it
devoutly, and ate it, unconscious of the scandalized looks of the
deacon, who knew nothing of the miserable object thus accepting
rather than claiming a share in the common hope of men.
When the cup followed, the deacon was on the alert, ready to take
it at once from the hands of Miss Horn. But as it left her lips she
rose, grasping it in both hands, and with the dignity of a messenger
of the Most High, before which the deacon drew back, bore it to the
laird, and having made him drink the little that was left, yielded
it to the conservator of holy privileges, with the words:
"Hoots, man! the puir body never had a taste o' the balm o' Gilead
in a' 's persecutit life afore!"
The liberality of Mr Bigg had not been lost upon her: freely she
had received--freely she gave. What was good must, because it
was good, be divided with her neighbour. It was a lawless act.
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