gone and no reply came Susannah wrote again. This
time she addressed the letter to the care of Mr. Horace Bushnell in
Hartford, thinking that perhaps by some extraordinary chance Ephraim's
whereabouts might not be known in Manchester. This letter was, unlike
all those that had preceded it, more brief, more reserved, and more
gentle. It expressed interest only in his affairs, telling little of her
own except the fact that she desired to return. Autumn came, and
Susannah's faith in man was tested to the utmost by the dreariness of
daily disappointment.

If Ephraim were dead surely his mother or his friend would return her
letters. If Ephraim were not dead what could be the explanation of this
silence? Many vicissitudes of life occurred to her as possibly producing
a change in him, and only one explanation of his silence was
possible--that he was changed. That was a terrible belief to face. Her
faith took the bit in its teeth and refused to be guided by
intelligence. The whole strength of her volition abetted the revolt of
faith. Anything, everything, might be true rather than that the
essentials of character which went to make up Ephraim's personality
should be blurred or decomposed.

Susannah wrote again to Ephraim, to his mother and to Mr.
Bushnell--three separate letters. She worked with the more zeal at her
self-appointed task. So cheerful and energetic was she that she appeared
to her pupils and acquaintance as a radiant being, and received the most
genuine honour and affection from the Mormon settlement in Quincy.

CHAPTER XVIII.

With the jubilant Saints at Quincy the prophet could not remain long. He
journeyed up the banks of the Mississippi. Here and there communities of
his people welcomed him with touching joy; their numbers and their
faithfulness must have raised his heart. He came at last to a poor,
sickly locality, around which the great river took a majestic sweep, and
here the prophet saw what no one else had seen--a site of great beauty
and advantage. The inhabitants were dying of malarial fever. Smith
bought their lands at a low price and drained them. Thus arose the
beautiful city of Nauvoo.

In the Illinois State Legislature two parties were nearly equal in
strength, and both coveted the Mormon vote. When Smith applied for the
city charter, for charters also for a university and a force of militia
to be called "The Nauvoo Legion," they were granted, and worded to his
will.

White limes