of a sillier superstition than I seem to have encouraged. Talk about
faith! Let a man act up to light and take the consequences. I can see
clear enough now. _You_ never looked for this to happen, Elise?"

She shook her head. Indeed, she never had--no, not for a moment.

"To think I should have permitted it to go on!"

"But you did let it go on--and I--consented. Do not let me forget
that," she exclaimed. "I will go home, Albert."

"Ha, Elise! I wish I could feel more confidence in your teachers when
you get there."

"I need no one to tell me what my duty is just here," she answered.

"Have you ever loved me, child? _Child_! I am talking to a rock. You
do not yield to this?" He waved the letter aloft, and as if he would
dash it from him. Elise looked at him, and did not speak. "Sister
Benigna will of course feel called upon to bless the Lord," said he.
"But Wenck shall find a way out of this difficulty. Then we will have
done with them both, my own."

"Am I to have no voice in this matter?" she asked. "What if I say--"

Spener grasped her hand so suddenly that, as if in her surprise she
had forgotten what she was about to say, Elise added, "Sister Benigna
is my best friend. She knows nothing about the lot."

"Does not?"