e, who shows even at this early Sabbath-school age a pharisaical
aptitude for piety. I pointed out that in the sight of heaven one soul is
as worthy, as acceptable, as another. Besides, did not Isaac become a
righteous man, even if he was not offered up and did live in this world of
temptations an unconscionably long time? But father was not to be reasoned
with or comforted. And yesterday, Sunday, he preached impressively from
the text, "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
"Of course _you_ are the heathen, Philip, and of course _I_ am the "vain
thing." But that is not father's idea. The vain thing you imagine is that
he will give his consent to our marriage! Well, you may settle it between
you! All I know is that now I am predestined, but not in the dedicated
deaconess direction!

JESSICA, THE BRAVE.

P.S.--What do you think, _our_ little forest is for sale. And oh, Philip,
if some vandal buys my dear trees and cuts them down, my very life will
die of grief! They are my brothers. And if a man built a house there and
asked me to marry him, I would, if he were as ugly as old Jeremiah! (I
suppose all the prophets were like this, their writings produce that
impression!) And my father would consent, even if the bridegroom were a
heathen instead of a prophet. For he would be obliged to attend religious
services at Morningtown, and father does not believe any man can long
remain under the drippings of his sanctuary without being forgiven. And I
do not either. God would have mercy upon him somehow!

XXXIII

PHILIP TO JESSICA

Your letter, dearest Jessica, and your father's came by the same post, and
the sensation they gave me was as if some moral confusion had befallen the
elements and summer were mingled with winter in the same sky. Not that his
letter was anything but kind and dignified, but it seemed to remove you
and your life so far away from me. I confess I had some fears that he
might insist on the little we have seen or, as the world judges, know of
each other; it had not occurred to me that my "infidelity" would block my
path to happiness--so little do the people I commonly meet reck of that
matter. I have been accusing the world all along of indifference to the
spirit and to theology, and now, by a sort of poetical irony, I am blocked
in my progress toward happiness by meeting one who adheres to an old-world
belief in these thing