afford, which was, that a gentleman, a minister from the south of Maine,
had arrived, and by various explanations had identified the old preacher
who had been called Cameron as his father. It seemed that the old man
had long ago partially lost his wits--senses and brain having been
impaired through an accident--but this son had always succeeded in
keeping him in a quiet neighbourhood where his condition was understood,
until, in the beginning of the previous winter, the poor wanderer had
escaped the vigilance of his friends. It was partly on account of the
false name which had been given him that they had failed to trace him
until the circumstances of his tragic death were advertised.

"The son is culpable. Mad people should be shut up where they can do no
mischief." About half the ladies present joined in this comment.

Mrs. Rexford looked round uneasily to see that her young daughter
Winifred had not joined the party. Indiscreet usually, she was
wonderfully tender in these days of Winifred.

"I am not sure that if he had been my father I would have shut him up."
Trenholme spoke and sighed.

"If he had been my father," Sophia cried vehemently, "I would have gone
with him from village to village and door to door; I would rather have
begged my bread than kept him from preaching. I would have told the
people he was a _little_ mad, but not much, and saner than any of
_them_."

There was enough sympathy with Sophia's vivacity among her friends to
make it easy to express herself naturally.

"What is one false opinion more or less?" she cried. "Do any of us
imagine that _our_ opinions are just those held in heaven? This old man
had all his treasure in heaven, and that is, after all, the best
security that heart or mind will not go far astray."

The youngest Miss Brown was sitting on the fur rugs, not very far from
Trenholme. She looked up at him, pretty herself in the prettiness of
genuine admiration.

"It is such a pity that Miss Rexford is sitting just out of your sight.
You would be lenient to the heresy if you could see how becoming it is
to the heretic."

But Trenholme was not seen to look round. He was found to be saying that
the son of the late preacher evidently held his father in reverence; it
seemed that the old man had in his youth been a disciple and preacher
under Miller, the founder of the Adventist sect; it was natural that, as
his faculties failed, his mind should revert to the excitements of the