and His Church, and he earnestly coveted being a partaker with me; but
he besought of me never to think it possible for me to fall from the
truth, or the favour of Him who had chosen me, else that misbelief
would baulk every good work to which I set my face.

There was something so flattering in all this that I could not resist
it. Still, when he took leave of me, I felt it as a great relief; and
yet, before the morrow, I wearied and was impatient to see him again.
We carried on our fellowship from day to day, and all the while I knew
not who he was, and still my mother and reverend father kept insisting
that I was an altered youth, changed in my appearance, my manners, and
my whole conduct; yet something always prevented me from telling them
more about my new acquaintance than I had done on the first day we met.
I rejoiced in him, was proud of him, and soon could not live without
him; yet, though resolved every day to disclose the whole story of my
connection with him, I had it not in my power. Something always
prevented me, till at length I thought no more of it, but resolved to
enjoy his fascinating company in private, and by all means to keep my
own with him. The resolution was vain: I set a bold face to it, but my
powers were inadequate to the task; my adherent, with all the suavity
imaginable, was sure to carry his point. I sometimes fumed, and
sometimes shed tears at being obliged to yield to proposals against
which I had at first felt every reasoning power of my soul rise in
opposition; but for all that he never faded in carrying conviction
along with him in effect, for he either forced me to acquiesce in his
measures, and assent to the truth of his positions, or he put me so
completely down that I had not a word left to advance against them.

After weeks, and I may say months of intimacy, I observed, somewhat to
my amazement, that we had never once prayed together; and, more than
that, that he had constantly led my attentions away from that duty,
causing me to neglect it wholly. I thought this a bad mark of a man
seemingly so much set on inculcating certain important points of
religion, and resolved next day to put him to the test, and request him
to perform that sacred duty in name of us both. He objected boldly;
saying there were very few people indeed with whom he could join in
prayer, and he made a point of never doing it, as he was sure they were
to ask many things of which he disapproved, and that, if he