e proposed to read a book on Shakerism
aloud, he fell into her mood with what was, for him, enthusiasm; he
declared he would like nothing better, and he put his daily paper aside
without a visible regret.

"Well," he admitted, "I must say there's more to it than I supposed.
They've studied the Prophecies; that's evident. And they're not narrow
in their belief. They're really Unitarians."

"Narrow?" she said--"they are as wide as heaven itself! And, oh, the
peace of it!"

"But they are NOT human," he would insist, smiling; "no marriage--that's
not human, little Tay."

It was not until two months later that he began to feel vaguely uneasy.
"Yes; it's interesting," he admitted; "but nobody in these days would
want to be a Shaker." To which she replied, boldly, "Why not?"

That was all, but it was enough. Lewis Hall's face suddenly sobered.
He had not stumbled along behind her in all her emotional experiences
without learning to read the guide-posts to her thought. "I hope she'll
get through with it soon," he said to himself, with a worried frown;
"it isn't wholesome for a mind like 'Thalia's to dwell on this kind of
thing."

It was in November that she broke to him that she had written Eldress
Hannah to ask if she might come and visit the community, and had been
answered "Yee."

Lewis was silent with consternation; he went out to the sawmill and
climbed up into the loft to think it all out alone. Should he forbid
it? He knew that was nonsense; in the first place, his conception of
the relation of husband and wife did not include that kind of thing; but
more than that, opposition would, he said to himself, "push her in."
Not into Shakerism; "'Thalia couldn't be a Shaker to save her life," he
thought, with an involuntary smile; but into an excited discontent with
her comfortable, prosaic life. No; definite opposition to the visit must
not be thought of--but he must try and persuade her not to go. How? What
plea could he offer? His own loneliness without her he could not
bring himself to speak of; he shrank from taking what seemed to him an
advantage. He might urge that she would find it cold and uncomfortable
in those old frame houses high up on the hills; or that it would be bad
for her health to take the rather wearing journey at this time of year.
But he knew too well how little effect any such prudent counsels would
have. The very fact that her interest had lasted for more than three
months showed that it had re