And a still severer trial was in
store. She accompanied her father, in obedience to his wish,
and against her own desire, to the Yearly Meeting in Philadelphia.
It has passed into a proverb that the Friends, on these occasions,
always bring rain with them; and the period of her visit was no
exception to the rule. The showery days of "Yearly Meeting Week"
glided by, until the last, and she looked forward with relief to
the morrow's return to Bucks County, glad to have escaped a meeting
with Richard Hilton, which might have confirmed her fears and could
but have given her pain in any case.
As she and her father joined each other, outside the meeting-house,
at the close of the afternoon meeting, a light rain was falling.
She took his arm, under the capacious umbrella, and they were soon
alone in the wet streets, on their way to the house of the Friends
who entertained them. At a crossing, where the water pouring down
the gutter towards the Delaware, caused them to halt a man,
plashing through the flood, staggered towards them.
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