nd the nice young girls, when they
are led to the hyminial halter in our temple by the saints that have
fixed on 'em, to be inducted into the safety of paradise! Happy those
that the prophet chooses for himself! While them other poor mistaken
backsliders shall be undergoing their thousand years of buffetings,
they'll reign triumphant, the saved saints of the Mil--"

How long Brother Jarrum's harangue might have rung on the wide ears of
his delighted listeners, it is not easy to say. But an interruption
occurred, to the proceeding's. It was caused by the entrance of
Peckaby; and the meeting was terminated somewhat abruptly. While Susan
Peckaby sat at the feet of the saint, a willing disciple of his
doctrine, her lord and master, however disheartening it may be to record
it, could not, by any means, be induced to open his heart and receive
the grace. He remained obdurate. Passively obdurate during the day; but
rather demonstratively obdurate towards night. Peckaby, a quiet, civil
man enough when sober, was just the contrary when _ivre_; and since he
had joined the blacksmith's shop, his evening visits to a noted
public-house--the Plough and Harrow--had become frequent. On his return
home from these visits, his mind had once or twice been spoken out
pretty freely as to the Latter Day Saint doctrine: once he had gone the
length of clearing the shop of guests, and marshalling the saint himself
to the retirement of his own apartment. However contrite he may have
shown himself for this the next morning, nobody desired to have the
scene repeated. Consequently, when Peckaby now entered, defiance in his
face and unsteadiness in his legs, the guests filed out of their own
accord; and Brother Jarrum, taking the flaring candle from the shelf,
disappeared with it up the stairs.

This has been a very fair specimen of Brother Jarrum's representations
and eloquence. It was only one meeting out of a great many. As I said
before, the precise tenets of his religious faith need not be enlarged
upon: it is enough to say that they were quite equal to his temporal
promises. You will, therefore, scarcely wonder that he made disciples.
But the mischief, as yet, had only begun to brew.

CHAPTER XL.

A VISIT OF CEREMONY.

Whatever may have been Lionel Verner's private sentiments, with regard
to his choice of a wife--whether he repented his hasty bargain or
whether he did not, no shade of dissatisfaction escaped him. Sibylla
took up h