The next evening at prayer-meeting Cromwell Biron received quite an ovation from old friends and neighbors . Cromwell had been a favorite in his boyhood . He had now the additional glamour of novelty and reputed wealth . He was beaming and expansive . He went into the choir to help sing . Lucy Ellen sat beside him , and they sang from the same book . Two red spots burned on her thin cheeks , and she had a cluster of lavender chrysanthemums pinned on her jacket . She looked almost girlish , and Cromwell Biron gazed at her with sidelong admiration , while Cecily watched them both fiercely from her pew . She knew that Cromwell Biron had come home , wooing his old love . `` But he sha 'n' t get her , '' Cecily whispered into her hymnbook . Somehow it was a comfort to articulate the words , `` She promised . '' On the church steps Cromwell offered his arm to Lucy Ellen with a flourish . She took it shyly , and they started down the road in the crisp Autumn moonlight . For the first time in ten years Cecily walked home from prayer-meeting alone . She went up-stairs and flung herself on her bed , reckless for once , of her second best hat and gown . Lucy Ellen did not venture to ask Cromwell in . She was too much in awe of Cecily for that . But she loitered with him at the gate until the grandfather 's clock in the hall struck eleven . Then Cromwell went away , whistling gaily , with Lucy Ellen 's chrysanthemum in his buttonhole , and Lucy Ellen went in and cried half the night . But Cecily did not cry .
She lay savagely awake XXXXX morning .
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