d with a readiness that pleased her
father greatly, that he was quite right in thinking her too young and
inexperienced to take the decision of so serious a matter into her own
hands; and when she added that the years which might be supposed to
bring wisdom as well as experience would find her unchanged as to the
purpose of her life, he only smiled and nodded his head a good many
times, and let it pass.

Mr Maxwell may be said to have been resigned and hopeful also. Indeed
he had not expected to take the young lady to Gershom for a good while
to come. He acknowledged that Mr Langden's view of the case was just
and reasonable, and looking at it from a Gershom point of view, he
acknowledged to himself, though he did not think it necessary to say
anything of it to any one else, that a few more years and a wider
experience would be of advantage to a minister's wife in relation to
even the comparatively primitive community where his lot was cast. So
he went away cheerfully enough, content to wait.

It must be confessed that Miss Martha was the greatest sufferer of the
three at this time. She too was obliged to allow that her niece was
very young, and she did not doubt that the years would add to her many
gifts and graces. Nor did she doubt her constancy, or she believed she
did not, but she knew that a change had come to the means and
circumstances of her brother of late. He had always been a prosperous
man in a safe and quiet way, but of late he had become a rich man, and
though no decided change had as yet been made in the manner of life of
his family, she knew by various signs and tokens that Miss Essie at
least was to have the benefit of those advantages which wealth can give.
And though she told herself that she did not doubt that she would be
brought safely through the temptations to which wealth might expose her,
she sometimes thought of her picture with a troubled heart.

A short absence was just what Mr Maxwell had needed to prove to himself
how content he was to look upon Gershom as his home, and upon his church
and congregation and upon the people of the place generally, as his
friends. His visit had been so arranged as to include the New England
Thanksgiving Day, which falls in the end of November, and the winter,
which set in early this year, was beginning when he returned. Winter is
the time of leisure in Canada among farmers, and in country places
generally, for the long winter evenings give opportun