ls, but the collapse was
only for a moment; even Alfaretta's offering of her first lie upon the
altar of her devotion to her mistress was not to save her.

"Well," he said, opening his mouth slowly and looking about with great
dignity, "if she hasn't said it to you, she has to other people, I'll be
bound. Fer she said it to Mrs. Davis, and"--the elder inflated his chest,
and held his head high--"and me. It is my duty as elder to take notice of
it, fer her own soul's sake, and to open her husband's eyes, if he's been
too blind to see it. Yes, the Session should deal with her. Prayers ain't
no good fer such as her," he said, becoming excited. "Ain't she heard my
prayers most all winter, till she give up comin' to prayer-meetin',
preferrin' to stay outside,

"'Where sinners meet, and awful scoffers dwell'?

An' I've exhorted; but"--the elder raised his eyes piously to
heaven--"Paul may plant and Apollos may water, but it don't do no good."

Alfaretta knew her father's iron will too well to attempt any further
protests. She wiped her eyes, and, while she put on a hat adorned with an
aggressive white feather, she bade the family good-night in an unsteady
voice. Thaddeus, anxious only to escape notice, sidled towards the door,
and stood waiting for her, with a deprecating look on his round face.

In spite, however, of the elder's indignation and his really genuine
alarm about the influences which surrounded his child, he had a prudent
afterthought in the matter of her leaving the service of Mrs. Ward. It
was difficult to get anything in Lockhaven for a young woman to do, and
times were hard that year.

"You--ah--you needn't give notice to-night, Alfaretta," he said. "I'll
speak to the preacher about it, myself. But mind you have as little to
say to her as you can, and may the Lord protect you!"

But the elder's plans for cautioning his pastor were doomed to
disappointment. He was a prisoner with lumbago for the next fortnight,
and even the most sincere interest in some one else's spiritual welfare
cannot tempt a man out of the house when he is bent almost double with
lumbago. Nor, when John came to see him, could he begin such a
conversation as he had planned, for his neck was too stiff to allow him
to raise his head and look in Mr. Ward's face. When he recovered, he was
delayed still another week, because the preacher had gone away to General
Assembly.

But Alfaretta was far too miserable to find in her father's co