ll possession. She sat with her
worsted pattern held bravely in sight, and her cheek as bright as its
liveliest crimson.

"Miss Cynthia has let me in upon you," he said, "or I should not have
ventured to disturb you in this way. A work of art, is it, Miss Myrtle
Hazard?"

"Only a pair of slippers, Mr. Gridley,--for my pastor."

"Oh! oh! That is well. A good old man. I have a great regard for the
Rev. Eliphalet Pemberton. I wish all ministers were as good and simple
and pure-hearted as the Rev. Eliphalet Pemberton. And I wish all the
young people thought as much about their elders as you do, Miss Myrtle
Hazard. We that are old love little acts of kindness. You gave me more
pleasure than you knew of, my dear, when you worked that handsome cushion
for me. The old minister will be greatly pleased,--poor old man!"

"But, Mr. Gridley, I must not let you think these are for Father
Pemberton. They are for--Mr. Stoker."

"The Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker! He is not an old man, the Rev. Joseph
Bellamy Stoker. He may perhaps be a widower before a great while.--Does
he know that you are working those slippers for him?"

"Dear me! no, Mr. Gridley. I meant them for a surprise to him. He has
been so kind to me, and understands me so much better than I thought
anybody did. He is so different from what I thought; he makes religion
so perfectly simple, it seems as if everybody would agree with him, if
they could only hear him talk."

"Greatly interested in the souls of his people, is n't he?"

"Too much, almost, I am afraid. He says he has been too hard in his
sermons sometimes, but it was for fear he should not impress his hearers
enough."

"Don't you think he worries himself about the souls of young women rather
more than for those of old ones, Myrtle?"

There was something in the tone of this question that helped its slightly
sarcastic expression. Myrtle's jealousy for her minister's sincerity was
roused.

"How can you ask that, Mr. Gridley? I am sure I wish you or anybody
could have heard him talk as I have. There is no age in souls, he says;
and I am sure that it would do anybody good to hear him, old or young."

"No age in souls,--no age in souls. Souls of forty as young as souls of
fifteen; that 's it." Master Gridley did not say this loud. But he did
speak as follows: "I am glad to hear what you say of the Rev. Joseph
Bellamy Stoker's love of being useful to people of all ages. You have had
comf