indulged in it; moreover, that he was warmly attached to Miss
Power.

'Though she gives me more trouble than all the rest of the Baptist
church in this district,' he said, 'I love her as my own daughter. But
I am sadly exercised to know what she is at heart. Heaven supply me with
fortitude to contest her wild opinions, and intractability! But she has
sweet virtues, and her conduct at times can be most endearing.'

'I believe it!' said Somerset, with more fervour than mere politeness
required.

'Sometimes I think those Stancy towers and lands will be a curse to her.
The spirit of old papistical times still lingers in the nooks of those
silent walls, like a bad odour in a still atmosphere, dulling the
iconoclastic emotions of the true Puritan. It would be a pity indeed
if she were to be tainted by the very situation that her father's
indomitable energy created for her.'

'Do not be concerned about her,' said Somerset gently. 'She's not a
Paedobaptist at heart, although she seems so.'

Mr. Woodwell placed his finger on Somerset's arm, saying, 'If she's
not a Paedobaptist, or Episcopalian; if she is not vulnerable to the
mediaeval influences of her mansion, lands, and new acquaintance, it
is because she's been vulnerable to what is worse: to doctrines beside
which the errors of Paaedobaptists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, are
but as air.'

'How? You astonish me.'

'Have you heard in your metropolitan experience of a curious body of New
Lights, as they think themselves?' The minister whispered a name to his
listener, as if he were fearful of being overheard.

'O no,' said Somerset, shaking his head, and smiling at the minister's
horror. 'She's not that; at least, I think not.. .. She's a woman;
nothing more. Don't fear for her; all will be well.'

The poor old man sighed. 'I love her as my own. I will say no more.'

Somerset was now in haste to go back to the lady, to ease her apparent
anxiety as to the result of his mission, and also because time seemed
heavy in the loss of her discreet voice and soft, buoyant look. Every
moment of delay began to be as two. But the minister was too earnest
in his converse to see his companion's haste, and it was not till
perception was forced upon him by the actual retreat of Somerset that he
remembered time to be a limited commodity. He then expressed his wish
to see Somerset at his house to tea any afternoon he could spare, and
receiving the other's promise to call as soon