When they went into the church, the congregation grew quite excited.  Some of the devout ones almost spoke aloud, so astonished were they at the sight of these ladies, whose dresses were trimmed more elaborately than the priest's chausible.  The mayor offered them his pew, the first one on the right, and Madame Tellier sat there with her sister-in-law.

Three men were standing in front of the lectern singing as loud as they could.  A child's shrill voice took up the reply, and from time to time a priest sitting in a stall and wearing a biretta got up, muttered something and sat down again.

Then silence ensued.  The service went on, and toward the end of it Rosa, with her head in both her hands, suddenly thought of her mother and her village church on a similar occasion.  She almost fancied that that day had returned when she was so small, and she began to cry.

She wept silently, but her emotion increased with her recollections, and she began to sob.  Her two neighbors, similarly overcome, were sobbing by her side.  There was a flood of tears, and as weeping is contagious, Madame soon found that her eyes were wet.