, Angelina continued to plead for them through her
pen. She could never forget the cause that could never forget her, and
to her writings was transferred much of the force and eloquence of her
speaking.

Immediately after the destruction of Pennsylvania Hall, Mr. and Mrs.
Weld, accompanied by Sarah Grimke, paid a visit to Mr. Weld's parents
in Manlius, from which place, Sarah, writing to Jane Smith, says:--

"O Jane, it looks like almost too great a blessing for us three to be
together in some quiet, humble habitation, living to the glory of God,
and promoting the happiness of those around us; to be spiritually
united, and to be pursuing with increasing zeal the great work of the
abolition of slavery."

The "quiet, humble habitation" was found at Fort Lee, on the Hudson,
and there the happy trio settled down for their first housekeeping.

CHAPTER XVI.

They were scarcely settled amid their new surroundings before the
sisters received a formal notice of their disownment by the Society of
Friends because of Angelina's marriage. The notification, signed by
two prominent women elders of the Society, expressed regret that Sarah
and Angelina had not more highly prized their right of membership, and
added an earnest desire that they might come to a sense of their real
state, and manifest a disposition to condemn their deviations from the
path of duty.

Angelina replied without delay that they wished the discipline of the
Society to have free course with regard to them. "It is our joy," she
wrote, "that we have committed no offence for which Christ Jesus will
disown us as members of the household of faith. If you regret that we
have valued our right of membership so little, we equally regret that
our Society should have adopted a discipline which has no foundation
in the Bible or in reason; and we earnestly hope the time may come
when the simple Gospel rule with regard to marriage, 'Be not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers,' will be as conscientiously enforced
as that sectarian one which prohibits the union of the Lord's own
people if their shibboleth be not exactly the same.

"We are very respectfully, in that love which knows no distinction in
color, clime, or creed, your friends,

"A.E.G. WELD.

"SARAH M. GRIMKE."

It will be noticed that in this reply Angelina avoids the Quaker
phraseology, and neither she nor Sarah ever after used it, except
occasionally in correspondence with a Quaker friend.