ings. A powerful preacher is
open to the same sense of enjoyment--an awful, tremulous, goose-flesh
sort of state, but still enjoyment--that a great tragedian feels when he
curdles the blood of his audience.

Mr. Stoker was noted for the vividness of his descriptions of the future
which was in store for the great bulk of his fellow-townsmen and
fellow-worlds-men. He had three sermons on this subject, known to all
the country round as the sweating sermon, the fainting sermon, and the
convulsion-fit sermon, from the various effects said to have been
produced by them when delivered before large audiences. It might be
supposed that his reputation as a terrorist would have interfered with
his attempts to ingratiate himself with his young favorites. But the
tragedian who is fearful as Richard or as Iago finds that no hindrance to
his success in the part of Romeo. Indeed, women rather take to terrible
people; prize-fighters, pirates, highwaymen, rebel generals, Grand Turks,
and Bluebeards generally have a fascination for the sex; your virgin has
a natural instinct to saddle your lion. The fact, therefore, that the
young girl had sat under his tremendous pulpitings, through the sweating
sermon, the fainting sermon, and the convulsion-fit sermon, did not
secure her against the influence of his milder approaches.

Myrtle was naturally surprised at receiving a visit from him; but she was
in just that unbalanced state in which almost any impression is welcome.
He showed so much interest, first in her health, then in her thoughts and
feelings, always following her lead in the conversation, that before he
left her she felt as if she had made a great discovery; namely, that this
man, so formidable behind the guns of his wooden bastion, was a most
tenderhearted and sympathizing person when he came out of it unarmed.
How delightful he was as he sat talking in the twilight in low and tender
tones, with respectful pauses of listening, in which he looked as if he
too had just made a discovery,--of an angel, to wit, to whom he could not
help unbosoming his tenderest emotions, as to a being from another
sphere!

It was a new experience to Myrtle. She was all ready for the spiritual
manipulations of an expert. The excitability which had been showing
itself in spasms and strange paroxysms had been transferred to those
nervous centres, whatever they may be, cerebral or ganglionic, which are
concerned in the emotional movements of the r