ut an end to the thought in his
mind when my aunt speaks out about it.'

'My cousin seeks me in marriage,' said Lois.

'Thee!' and Grace struck out in the direction of her niece with a
gesture of supreme contempt. But now Manasseh spoke forth:

'Yea! it is preordained. The voice has said it, and the spirit has
brought her to me as my bride.'

'Spirit! an evil spirit then. A good spirit would have chosen out for
thee a godly maiden of thine own people, and not a prelatist and a
stranger like this girl. A pretty return, Mistress Lois, for all our
kindness.'

'Indeed, Aunt Hickson, I have done all I could--Cousin Manasseh knows
it--to show him I can be none of his. I have told him,' said she,
blushing, but determined to say the whole out at once, 'that I am all
but troth-plight to a young man of our own village at home; and, even
putting all that on one side, I wish not for marriage at present.'

'Wish rather for conversion and regeneration. Marriage is an unseemly
word in the mouth of a maiden. As for Manasseh, I will take reason with
him in private; and, meanwhile, if thou hast spoken truly, throw not
thyself in his path, as I have noticed thou hast done but too often of
late.'

Lois's heart burnt within her at this unjust accusation, for she knew
how much she had dreaded and avoided her cousin, and she almost looked
to him to give evidence that her aunt's last words were not true. But,
instead, he recurred to his one fixed idea, and said:

'Mother, listen! If I wed not Lois, both she and I die within the year.
I care not for life; before this, as you know, I have sought for death'
(Grace shuddered, and was for a moment subdued by some recollection of
past horror); 'but if Lois were my wife I should live, and she would be
spared from what is the other lot. That whole vision grows clearer to
me day by day. Yet, when I try to know whether I am one of the elect,
all is dark. The mystery of Free-Will and Fore-Knowledge is a mystery
of Satan's devising, not of God's.'

'Alas, my son! Satan is abroad among the brethren even now; but let the
old vexed topics rest. Sooner than fret thyself again, thou shalt have
Lois to be thy wife, though my heart was set far differently for thee.'

'No, Manasseh,' said Lois. 'I love you well as a cousin, but wife of
yours I can never be. Aunt Hickson, it is not well to delude him so. I
say, if ever I marry man, I am troth-plight to one in England.'

'Tush, child! I am your guardia