ittle heart for the object of her saving;
she might, she knew, be going to ignominy and starvation, for with the
stigma of Mormonism upon her, she felt that it was unlikely that she
would be received with credit in any town where she was friendless and
unknown.

Although the community prospered greatly, Smith did not again interfere
to increase Susannah's school fees. Emma began to talk largely of the
splendour of Nauvoo, reading from her husband's letters of the Nauvoo
House, a huge hotel, which was being rapidly and grandly built for the
perpetual occupation of himself and family and the entertainment of all
such as the Church of the Saints should delight to honour.

Susannah found it hard to understand why Emma was not taken to Nauvoo
even before the great house was built for her reception. It was indeed
commonly reported among the Gentiles at this time that the prophet had
secretly espoused other wives; but a malignant report of this nature,
together with accusations of drunkenness and rank dishonesty, had
persistently followed the sect from its beginning, and, as far as
Susannah knew, were now, as before, totally untrue. This special report,
however, reached Emma in an hour of depression, and she came to Susannah
for sympathy, shaken with grief and indignation.

"What does it mean that they always say that of him when the one thing
that he's done has been to excommunicate any of the brethren that taught
any such thing? And there's just been an awful row on in the Council of
Nauvoo against Sydney Rigdon and some pamphlet he's written on a
doctrine he calls 'Spiritual Wives,' and Joseph has risen up and cast
him out, even though he was his best friend."

The reason of the calumny seemed to Susannah clear enough; it was a
natural one for low-minded politicians who hated Smith to formulate, and
the religious world outside thought they were doing God service by
believing any ill of a blasphemer; but this charge was an old one, and
she probed further to-day for the real cause of Emma's excitement. She
was first given a letter in which Smith told of Rigdon's
excommunication.

"Rigdon's doctrine," wrote Smith, "is a vile one because it is held by
the whole sect of Perfectionists which are now scattered through the
Churches of the eastern States, and is a proof that the glory of the
Lord is departed from them, for they say that a man may be married to
one wife in an earthly manner, and she who is to be his in a spiritu