ll do her good too, and save a great deal of time for the minister,
conversing with two at once. She is of discreet age, and will tell you
when it is time to come away,--you might stay too long, you know. I've
known young persons stay a good deal too long at these interviews,--a
great deal too long, Susan Posey!"

Such was the fatherly counsel of Master Byles Gridley.

Susan was not very quick of apprehension, but she could not help seeing
the justice of Master Gridley's remark, that for a young person to go
and break in on the hours that a minister requires for his studies,
without being accompanied by a mature friend who would remind her when
it was time to go, would be taking an unfair advantage of his kindness
in asking her to call upon him. She promised, therefore, that she would
never go without having Mrs. Hopkins as her companion, and with this
assurance her old friend rested satisfied.

It is altogether likely that he had some deeper reason for his advice
than those with which he satisfied the simple nature of Susan Posey.
Of that it will be easier to judge after a glance at the conditions and
character of the minister and his household.

The Rev. Mr. Stoker had, in addition to the personal advantages already
alluded to, some other qualities which might prove attractive to many
women. He had, in particular, that art of sliding into easy intimacy
with them which implies some knowledge of the female nature, and, above
all, confidence in one's powers. There was little doubt, the gossips
maintained, that many of the younger women of his parish would have been
willing, in certain contingencies, to lift for him that other end of his
yoke under which poor Mrs. Stoker was fainting, unequal to the burden.

That lady must have been some years older than her husband,--how many we
need not inquire too curiously,--but in vitality she had long passed
the prime in which he was still flourishing. She had borne him five
children, and cried her eyes hollow over the graves of three of them.
Household cares had dragged upon her; the routine of village life
wearied her; the parishioners expected too much of her as the minister's
wife; she had wanted more fresh air and more cheerful companionship; and
her thoughts had fed too much on death and sin,--good bitter tonics to
increase the appetite for virtue, but not good as food and drink for the
spirit.

But there was another grief which lay hidden far beneath these obvious
depre