fit into that spot? She did
not look much like the ministers' wives that the Gershom people knew
most about.

"I suppose it comes as natural to her to have gloves, and boots, and
bonnets to match every gown she puts on, as it does for the most of folk
to wear one pair as long as they'll last," said Miss Smith from
Fosbrooke--a much more primitive place than Gershom--"and she looks as
if she set a value on such things, as even good folks will do till
they've learned better."

"And the minister's salary isn't equal to all that, and wouldn't be, not
if it was raised to eight hundred dollars, which isn't likely yet a
spell," said Mrs Coleman, the new deacon's wife.

"Not unless she has money of her own. And if she has--well, ministers'
folks are pretty much so, wherever they be, or whatever they've got; and
such articles of luxury are not the thing for ministers' wives--not in
_this_ wooden country."

"I know one thing," said Miss Hall, the dressmaker. "Her trunk was
never packed to come here short of five hundred dollars, to say nothing
of jewellery. I've handled considerable dry-goods in my time, and I
know that much."

"Ah, well. I guess any one that's lived in `the States,' and that talks
as cool as a cucumber about going to travel in Europe, isn't very likely
to settle down in Gershom--not and be contented," said Myrilla Green,
who had lived in "the States" herself, and was supposed to know the
difference.

"Ah! I guess there's as good folks as her in Gershom;" and so the talk
went on.

But it was the opinion of several of the ladies interested in the
discussion, that clothes, and even money, did not amount to much in some
cases. The young lady had the missionary spirit, as any one who had
heard her talk must see, and she was not likely to be influenced by
secondary motives.

Of course the discussion of the possibility implied by all this was
inevitable in the circumstances, though no one in Gershom _knew_
anything about the matter; and the parties most concerned could have
given them little satisfactory information with regard to it. The first
of the two years of probation, which Mr Langden had insisted upon, had
not yet passed, and Mr Maxwell could not have renewed the question of
an engagement, if he had wished to do so, or if Miss Essie had given him
an opportunity, which she did not. Not a word was spoken between them
that all Gershom might not have heard, though nothing could be more
friendl