which acquainted them with the result; and the peace of her prayerful
soul was rent by the thought that a joyless surrender of human will
to a higher was, perhaps, no better than the poor helpless slave's
extorted sacrifice. The happiness of the household seemed to Benigna
in her keeping. If they had gone lightly seeking the oracle of God,
as they would have sought a fortune-teller, was not the Most High
dishonored? She could not say this to Elise, but could she say it to
Albert Spener? Ought she not to say it to him? There was no other to
whom it could be said. Had the coming day any duty so imperative as
this? She arose to perform it, but Spener, as we know, had gone away
the day before.




CHAPTER VI.

THE MEN OF SPENERSBERG.


This Spenersberg, about which Leonhard was not a little eager to know
more when he shut the door of the apartment into which his host had
ushered him--for he must remain all night--what was it?

A colony, or a brotherhood, or a community, six years old. Such a fact
does not lie ready for observation every day--such a place does not
lie in the hand of a man at his bidding. What, then, was its history?
We need not wait to find out until morning, when Leonhard will proceed
to discover. He is satisfied when he lies down upon the bed, which
awaited him, it seems, as he came hither on the way-train--quite