The minister, on the other
hand, would have devoted himself more particularly to Miss Susan, but,
with a very natural make-believe obtuseness, the good woman drew his
fire so constantly that few of his remarks, and hardly any of his
insinuating looks, reached the tender object at which they were aimed.
It is probable that his features or tones betrayed some impatience at
having thus been foiled of his purpose, for Mrs. Hopkins thought he
looked all the time as if he wanted to get rid of her. The three parted,
therefore, not in the best humor all round. Mrs. Hopkins declared she'd
see the minister in Jericho before she'd fix herself up as if she was
goin' to a weddin' to go and see him again. Why, he did n't make any
more of her than if she'd been a tabby-cat. She believed some of these
ministers thought women's souls dried up like peas in a pod by the time
they was forty year old; anyhow, they did n't seem to care any great
about 'em, except while they was green and tender. It was all Miss
Se-usan, Miss Se-usan, Miss Se-usan, my dear! but as for her, she might
jest as well have gone with her apron on, for any notice he took of
her. She did n't care, she was n't goin' to be left out when there was
talkin' goin' on, anyhow.

Susan Posey, on her part, said she did n't like him a bit. He looked
so sweet at her, and held his head on one side,--law! just as if he had
been a young beau! And,--don't tell,--but he whispered that he wished
the next time I came I wouldn't bring that Hopkins woman!

It would not be fair to repeat what the minister said to himself; but we
may own as much as this, that, if worthy Mrs. Hopkins had heard it,
she would have treated him to a string of adjectives which would have
greatly enlarged his conceptions of the female vocabulary.

CHAPTER XIII. BATTLE.

In tracing the history of a human soul through its commonplace nervous
perturbations, still more through its spiritual humiliations, there is
danger that we shall feel a certain contempt for the subject of such
weakness. It is easy to laugh at the erring impulses of a young girl;
but you who remember when_______ _________, only fifteen years old,
untouched by passion, unsullied in name, was found in the shallow brook
where she had sternly and surely sought her death,--(too true! too
true!--ejus animae Jesu miserere!--but a generation has passed since
then,)--will not smile so scornfully.

Myrtle Hazard no longer required the physician's