ally struck roots into her mind, and mere
prudence would not avail much. Still, he would urge prudence; then, if
she was determined, she must go. "She'll get sick of it in a fortnight,"
he said; but for the present he must let her have her head, even if
she was making a mistake. She had a right to have her head, he reminded
himself--"but I must tell those people to keep her warm, she takes cold
so easily."

He got up and looked out of the window; below, in the race, there was a
jam of logs, and the air was keen with the pungent smell of sawdust and
new boards. The whir and thud of the machinery down-stairs sent a faint
quiver through the planks under his feet. "The mill will net a good
profit this year," he said to himself, absently. "'Thalia can have
pretty nearly anything she wants." And even as he said it he had a
sudden, vague misgiving: if she didn't have everything she wanted,
perhaps she would be happier? But the idea was too new and too subtle to
follow up, so the result of that troubled hour in the mill-chamber was
only that he made no very resolute objection to Athalia's acceptance
of Eldress Hannah's permission to come. It had been given grudgingly
enough.

The family were gathered in the sitting-room; they had had their
supper--the eight elderly women and the three elderly men, all that were
left of the community. The room had the austere and shining cleanness
which Athalia had called a perfume, but it was full of homely comfort.
A blue-and-white rag carpet in the centre left a border of bare floor,
painted pumpkin-yellow; there was a glittering airtight stove with
isinglass windows that shone like square, red eyes; a gay patchwork
cushion in the seat of a rocking-chair was given up to the black cat,
whose sleek fur glistened in the lamplight. Three of the sisters knitted
silently; two others rocked back and forth, their tired, idle hands
in their laps, their eyes closed; the other three yawned, and spoke
occasionally between themselves of their various tasks. Brother Nathan
read his weekly FARMER; Brother William turned over the leaves of
a hymn-book and appeared to count them with noiseless, moving lips;
Brother George cut pictures out of the back of a magazine, yawning
sometimes, and looking often at his watch. Into this quietness Eldress
Hannah's still voice came:

"I have heard from Lydia again." There was a faint stir, but no one
spoke. "The Lord is dealing with her," Eldress Hannah said; "she is