able," Brother Nathan conceded; "Shakers don't despise
marriage. But they like to see folks grow out of it into something
better, like--like your wife, maybe."

"Well, your doctrine would put an end to the world," Lewis said,
smiling.

"I guess," said Brother Nathan, dryly, "there ain't any immediate danger
of the world coming to an end."

"I'd like to see that book," Lewis said, when they parted at the
pasture-bars where a foot-path led down the hill to his own house.

And that night Brother Nathan had an eager word for the family. "He's
asked for a book!" he said. The Eldress smiled doubtfully, but Athalia,
with a rapturous upward look, said,

"May the Lord guide him!" then added, practically, "It won't amount to
anything. He thinks Shakerism isn't human."

"That's not against it, that's not against it!" Nathan declared,
smiling; "I've told him so a dozen times!"

But Athalia was so happy that first year, and so important, that she did
not often concern herself with the welfare of the man who had been her
husband. Instead--it was early in April--he concerned himself with hers;
he tried, tentatively, to see if it wasn't almost time for Athalia "to
get through with it." Of course, afterward, Sister Athalia realized,
with chagrin, that this attempt was only a forerunner of the fever that
was developing, which in a few days was to make him a very sick man.
But for the moment his question seemed to her a temptation of the devil,
and, of course, resisted temptation made her faith stronger than ever.

It was a deliciously cold spring night; Lewis had drawn the table, with
his books on it, close to the fire to try to keep warm, but he shivered,
even while his shoulders scorched, and somehow he could not keep his
mind on the black, rectangular characters of the Hebrew page before
him. He had been interested in Brother Nathan's explanation of Hosea's
forecasting of Shakerism, and he had admitted to himself that, if Nathan
was correct, there would be something to be said for Shakerism. The
idea made him vaguely uneasy, because, that "something" might be so
conclusive, that--But he could not face such a possibility.

He wanted to dig at the text, so that he might refute Nathan; but
somehow that night he was too dull to refute anybody, and by-and-by he
pushed the black-lettered page aside, and, crouching over the fire, held
out his hands to the blaze. He thought, vaguely, of the big fireplace in
the old study, and sudden