the outskirts of Muktiarbad for the field of his
labours. By degrees, his untiring efforts had prospered and Sombari was
now a large community of pastors and converts, and he, himself, an
Honorary Magistrate of second-class powers, in recognition of his
influence among the people. Mr. Meek had a reputation for converting the
heathen with a Bible in one hand and a cane in the other, and his
methods were justified by the results seen in the confidence he inspired
in his followers. He was a strong man, popularly credited with being
just, if unmerciful, and was respected by the natives for miles around
as hard men are, in the East; and they rarely appealed against his
judgments.

The same spirit had ruled Mr. Meek's domestic life and had reduced his
wife and daughter to the position of appendages of the Mission. It was
nothing to him that they professed no vocation for the life; the
discipline was wholesome for unregenerate human nature which is prone to
crave for what is worldly and unprofitable. He was responsible for the
souls in his care; and he conceived it his duty to protect them
according to _his_ lights--not _theirs_. Having safeguarded them from
the snares and temptations of Station life which represented the World,
the Flesh, and the Devil, he was filled with righteous satisfaction
concerning their safety hereafter, and ceased to trouble himself with
their yearnings in the present.

Mrs. Meek, who had once been a governess in a private family, was of a
mild, easy-going nature, incapable of resisting tyranny. Since her
marriage, her naturally submissive mind had become an echo of her
husband's, although she was not always in agreement with his opinions;
yet it was the line of least resistance, and "anything for a peaceful
life" was her motto. Her greatest comfort had come with the birth of her
daughter, who, later, was reared by her maternal relatives in England.
They had means, while the Meeks had barely enough for their own needs,
so Elsie had received a good education of which her relatives had borne
the cost, and at the finish, came out to her home at Sombari under the
protection of missionary friends travelling to India.

Though Mrs. Meek had not seen her daughter for the best years of her
childhood, her love for her had become the absorbing passion of her
life. For years she had carried about a heart aching with longing for
this treasure of her own flesh and blood, so that their reunion altered
her whole