,
because it used to be hers. Oh, I'm of no importance now--Lewis," she
broke off, suddenly, "who has our house this year?"

"Davis; he wants to re-lease it in May."

"He just takes it by the year, doesn't he?" she asked.

He nodded. "Wants a five-years' lease next time."

"Well, don't give it to him!" she said; and added, frowning: "You ought
to go back yourself, you know. It's foolish for you to be here. Why,
it's almost two years!"

"Time flies," he said, smiling.

She laughed and sighed. "Yes--I mean yee--indeed, it does! I was just
thinking, Lewis, we've been married ten years!"

"No, eight years. We were married just eight years," he said, soberly.

The color flew into her face. "Oh, yee; we were married eight years when
I came in."

He looked at her with great tenderness. "Athalia, I have to confess
to you that when you came I didn't think it would last with you. I
distrusted the Holy Spirit. And I came, myself, against my will, as you
know. But now I begin to think you were led--and perhaps you have led
me."

Athalia gave a little gasp--"WHAT!"

"I am not sure yet," he said.

"You said Shakerism was unhuman!" Athalia protested, with a thrill of
panic in her voice.

"Ah!" he cried, his voice suddenly kindling, "you know what Nathan is
always saying?--'That's not against it'? Athalia, its unhumanness, as
you call it, is why I think it may be of God. The human in us must give
way to the divine. 'First that which is natural; then that which is
spiritual.'"

"I--don't understand," she said, faintly; "you are not a Shaker?"

"No," he said, "not yet. But perhaps some day--I am trying to follow
you, Athalia."

She caught her breath with a frightened look. "Follow--ME?" Then she
burst out crying.

"Why, Tay!" he said, bewildered; "what is it, dear?" But she had left
him, stumbling blindly as she walked, her face hidden in her hands.

Lewis went back into his house, and, lighting his lamp, sat down to pore
over one of Brother Nathan's books. He was concerned, but he smiled a
little; it was so like Athalia to cry when she was happy! He did not see
his wife for several days. The Eldress said Sister 'Thalia was not well,
and Lewis looked sorry, but made no comment. He was a little anxious,
but he did not dwell upon his anxiety. In the next few days he worked
hard all day in Brother Nathan's herb-house, where the air was hazy with
the aromatic dust of tansy and pennyroyal, then hurried home at night to