little great, and half the horror
inspired by the priest's curse is derived from bell and book and candle.
The mystery of print gives weight to small men by the same witchcraft;
you would not take the personal advice of so stupid a man as Criticus
about the crossing of a _t_, but when he prints a tirade anonymously in
the Philadelphia "Tempus" the condemnation becomes serious.

Just in this way the imagination of Phillida was affected by the new
surroundings in the midst of which Mrs. Frankland spoke. The old
addresses in a Bible-class room with four plastered walls, or a modest
parlor, did not seem to have half so much force as these. The weight of
a brilliant success was now thrown into the scale, and Mrs. Frankland
could speak with an apostolic authority hitherto unknown. The speaker's
own imagination felt the influence of her new-found altitude, and she
expressed herself with assurance and deliberation, and with more dignity
and pathos than ever before.

With all this background, Mrs. Frankland spoke to-day from the twelfth
chapter of Romans on personal consecration. But she did not treat the
theme as a person of reformatory temperament might have done, by
denouncing the frivolity of rich and fashionable lives. It was not in
her nature to antagonize an audience. She drew a charming picture of the
beauty of a consecrated life, and she embellished it with wonderful
instances of devotion, interspersed with touching anecdotes of heroism
and self-sacrifice. The impression upon her audience was as remarkable
as it was certain to be transient. Women wept at the ravishing vision of
a life wholly given to noble ends, and then went their ways to live as
before, after the predispositions of their natures, the habits of their
lives, and the conventional standards of their class.

But in the heart of Phillida the words of the speaker fell upon fertile
soil, and germinated, where there was never a stone or a thorn. The
insularity of her life had left her very susceptible to Mrs. Frankland's
discourses. Old stagers who have been impressed now by this, now by
that, speech, writing, or personal persuasion, have suffered a certain
wholesome induration. Phillida was a virginal enthusiast.

XV.

TWO WAYS.

It seemed to Millard that Phillida would be the better for seeing more
of life. He would not have admitted to himself that he could wish her
any whit different from what she was. But he was nevertheless disposed
to mo