e supposed that Elvira represented all too well the attitude
of educated minds in that far-off world whose existence she tried to
forget.

"Therefore," said Elvira, "I will board with the Smiths."

Elvira's whim to be received into the prophet's family could not be
carried out, but by persistency she succeeded in establishing herself in
the household of Hyrum Smith, where she distinguished herself by two
peculiarities--a refusal to marry any of the saintly bachelors who were
proposed to her, and a perpetual good-natured delight in all that she
saw and heard. She resisted baptism, but to Susannah's surprise,
remained on perfectly friendly terms with the leaders of the sect.

The next two years passed quietly in Kirtland. Susannah, imbued, as
indeed were all Smith's friends, with his belief that the peace was but
for a time, cherished her husband as though death were near, and grieved
him by no outward nonconformity to pious practices. Many chance comments
which she made were straws which might have shown him the way the
current of her thought tended underneath her habitual silence, but they
showed him nothing. It was mortifying to her to observe that Smith,
rarely as he saw her, was always cognisant of her mental attitude, while
her husband remained ignorant.

Susannah gave up the girlish habit of fencing with facts that it
appeared modest to ignore. She was perfectly aware that she exercised a
distinct influence over the prophet, of what sort or degree she could
not determine. Little as she desired this influence, she could not
withhold a puzzled admiration for Smith's conduct. He rarely spoke to
her except in the most meagre and formal way, and all his decrees which
tended for her elevation in the eyes of the community or for her
personal comfort were so expressed that no personal bias could be
detected.

She asked herself if Smith practised this self-restraint for conscience'
sake, or from motives of policy, or whether it was that several distinct
selves were living together within him, and that what appeared restraint
was in reality the usual predominance of a part of him to which she bore
little or no relation. There was much else in his character to admire
and much to condemn. He had steadily improved himself in education, in
mental discipline, and in personal appearance and address. He could
hardly now be thought the same man as when he had first preached the new
doctrine in Manchester. This bespoke an intens