pecial doubt?" John asked.

"It is her views of hell that distress me," answered the elder. John
looked absently beyond him, with eyes which saw, not Alfaretta, but
Helen.

"That is very serious," he said slowly.

"'T ain't natural to her," protested the elder. "She was grounded on
hell; she's been taught better. It's the influence she's been under,
preacher."

"Surely it cannot be any one in our church," John said thoughtfully. "I
can think of too many who are weak in grace and good works, but none who
doubt the faith."

"Yes," replied the elder, "yes, it is in our church. That's why I came to
beg you to teach sound doctrine, especially the doctrine of everlasting
punishment. I could a' dealt with Alfaretta myself, and I'll bring her
round, you can depend on that; but it is for the church I'm askin' you,
and fer that person that's unsettled Alfaretta. Convert her, save her. It
is a woman, sir, a member (by letter, Brother Ward) of our church, and
she's spreadin' nets of eternal ruin for our youth, and I came to say she
ought to be dealt with; the Session ought to take notice of it. The
elders have been speakin' of it while you was away; and we don't see
no way out of it, for her own soul's sake,--let alone other people's
souls,--than to bring her before the Session. If we can't convert her
to truth, leastways she'll be disciplined to silence."

That subtile distinction which John Ward had made between his love and
his life was never more apparent than now. Though his elder's words
brought him the keenest consciousness of his wife's unbelief, he never
for an instant thought of her as the person whose influence in the church
was to be feared. His church and his wife were too absolutely separate
for such identification to be possible.

"And," Mr. Dean added, his metallic voice involuntarily softening, "our
feelings, Mr. Ward, mustn't interfere with it; they mustn't make us
unkind to her soul by slightin' her best good."

"No," John said, still absently, and scarcely listening to his
elder,--"no, of course not. But have you seen her, and talked with her,
and tried to lead her to the truth? That should be done with the
tenderest patience before anything so extreme as Sessioning."

"We ain't," the elder answered significantly, "but I make no doubt she's
been reasoned with and prayed with."

"Why, I have not spoken to her," John said, bewildered; "but you have not
told me who it is, yet."

"Mr. Ward," said the o