She must go to church and hear Sylvia sing , no matter how ridiculous she appeared , no matter how people talked and laughed at her . Spencervale congregation had a mild sensation the next afternoon . Just before the opening of service Old Lady Lloyd walked up the aisle and sat down in the long-unoccupied Lloyd pew , in front of the pulpit . The Old Lady 's very soul was writhing within her . She recalled the reflection she had seen in her mirror before she left -- the old black silk in the mode of thirty years agone and the queer little bonnet of shirred black satin . She thought how absurd she must look in the eyes of her world . As a matter of fact , she did not look in the least absurd . Some women might have ; but the Old Lady 's stately distinction of carriage and figure was so subtly commanding that it did away with the consideration of garmenting altogether . The Old Lady did not know this . But she did know that Mrs. Kimball , the storekeeper 's wife , presently rustled into the next pew in the very latest fashion of fabric and mode ; she and Mrs. Kimball were the same age , and there had been a time when the latter had been content to imitate Margaret Lloyd 's costumes at a humble distance . But the storekeeper had proposed , and things were changed now ; and there sat poor Old Lady Lloyd , feeling the change bitterly , and half wishing she had not come to church at all . Then all at once the Angel of Love touched there foolish thoughts , born of vanity and morbid pride , and they melted away as if they had never been . Sylvia Gray had come into the choir , and was sitting just where the afternoon sunshine fell over her beautiful hair like a halo . The Old Lady looked at her in a rapture of satisfied longing and thenceforth the service was blessed to her , as anything is blessed which comes through the medium of unselfish love , whether human or divine . Nay , are they not one and the same , differing in degree only , not in kind ? The Old Lady had never had such a good , satisfying look at Sylvia before . All her former glimpses had been stolen and fleeting . Now she sat and gazed upon her to her hungry heart 's content , lingering delightedly over every little charm and loveliness -- the way Sylvia 's shining hair rippled back from her forehead , the sweet little trick she had of dropping quickly her long-lashed eyelids when she encountered too bold or curious a glance , and the slender , beautifully modelled hands -- so like Leslie Gray 's hands -- that held her hymn book . She was dressed very plainly in a black skirt and a white shirtwaist ; but none of the other girls in the choir , with all their fine feathers , could hold a candle to her -- as the egg pedlar said to his wife , going home from church . The Old Lady listened to the opening hymns with keen pleasure .
Sylvia 's voice thrilled XXXXX and dominated them all .
as at before like of over that through to within