say nothing of an original edition of Rutherford's _Lex
Rex_.

"It does not become me, however, to reflect on the efforts of that
worthy matron, for she was by nature a good woman, and if any one could
be saved by good works, her place is assured. I was with her before
she died, and her last words to me were, 'Tell Jean tae dust yir bukes
aince in the sax months, and for ony sake keep ae chair for sittin'
on.' It was not the testimony one would have desired in the
circumstances, but yet, Mr. Carmichael, I have often thought that there
was a spirit of . . . of unselfishness, in fact, that showed the
working of grace." Later in the same evening Mr. Saunderson's mind
returned to his friend's spiritual state, for he entered into a long
argument to show that while Mary was more spiritual, Martha must also
have been within the Divine Election.

CHAPTER XI.

IN THE GLOAMING.

August is our summer time in the north, and Carmichael found it
pleasant walking from Lynedoch bridge to Kilbogie. The softness of the
gloaming, and the freshness of the falling dew, and the scent of the
honeysuckle in the hedge, and the smell of the cut corn in the
fields--for harvest is earlier down there than with us--and the cattle
chewing the cud, and the sheltering shadow of old beech trees, shed
peace upon him and touched the young minister's imagination. Fancies
he may have had in early youth, but he had never loved any woman except
his mother and his aunt. There had been times when he and his set
declared they would never marry, and one, whose heart was understood to
be blighted, had drawn up the constitution of a celibate Union. It was
never completed--and therefore never signed--because the brotherhood
could not agree about the duration of the vows--the draftsman, who has
been twice married since then, standing stiffly for their perpetuity,
while the others considered that a dispensing power might be lodged in
the Moderator of Assembly.

This railing against marriage on the part of his friends was pure
boyishness, and they all were engaged on the mere prospect of a kirk,
but Carmichael had more of a mind on the matter. There was in him an
ascetic bent, inherited from some Catholic ancestor, and he was almost
convinced that a minister would serve God with more abandonment in the
celibate state. As an only child, and brought up by a mother given to
noble thoughts, he had learned to set women in a place by themselves,
and con