the water, and he turned and caught her eye. The look he gave
her became suddenly one of terrified entreaty.

Susannah did not move; she was spell-bound. He began to wade toward
Smith, who stood in the deeper water. She wondered why he allowed
himself to be immersed. She was certain that he did not desire it, was
certain also that no motives of interest, no physical force, could have
operated to compel, when suddenly she asked herself sharply, what force
had taken her into the waters of this extraordinary baptism?

To her astonishment, when Newell Knight came up from the water he was
shouting aloud. She thought that his accents were a horrible simulation
of merriment, but by the others they were accepted as an evidence of
holy joy.

Two days after, when Susannah and her husband were returning from
Smith's preaching through the autumn night, they were met as they were
approaching Biery's hotel by a messenger from Knight's house. The
messenger had been sent to fetch Halsey. He reported that Newell Knight
was in "an awful way." Susannah alighted at once and walked to the
tavern, in order that her husband might drive with all speed to the
afflicted man.

The lights as they shone from John Biery's windows reminded her vividly
of the first time, a month since, when she had driven to that house at
night. She had grown much older since then, stronger in many ways,
weaker in some, but she was not conscious of this; it was not her way to
give even so much as a passing glance at herself as one of the actors in
life's drama. The road on which she trod was heavy with mud. The
night-winds cried around and through the empty branches of two or three
neglected trees in the clearing. The square wooden tavern stood at the
cross-roads. The light from the door made a pathway through the
darkness, up which Susannah walked.

When she entered, the heat and fumes from fire, candles, tobacco-pipes,
and steaming mugs met her. She was accustomed to walking through John
Biery's main room to gain the stair that led to her own; on the whole it
was not disorderly, or Susannah had but to appear on the threshold to
reduce it to order. To-night the men did not let her pass with their
usual civil "Good evening"; they assumed that she had an interest in
their talk.

"Is Mr. Halsey stopping over to Farmer Knight's?" asked Biery. "My! and
they'll be real glad to get him, ye know. Twiced they've been here fur
him. They say that Newell Knight he's poss