path that father was treading, so as to be by his side at every
turn of the road.

"I am sure" (here Ivory's tone was somewhat dry and satirical)
"that father's road had many turns, Waitstill! He was a
schoolmaster in Saco, you know, when I was born but he soon
turned from teaching to preaching, and here my mother followed
with entire sympathy, for she was intensely, devoutly religious.
I said there was little change in her, but there is one new
symptom. She has ceased to refer to her conversion to Cochranism
as a blessed experience. Her memory of those first days seems to
have faded, As to her sister's death and all the circumstances of
her bringing Rodman home, her mind is a blank. Her expectation of
father's return, on the other hand, is much more intense than
ever."

"She must have loved your father dearly, Ivory, and to lose him
in this terrible way is much worse than death. Uncle Bart says he
had a great gift of language!"

"Yes, and it was that, in my mind, that led him astray. I fear
that the Spirit of God was never so strong in father as the
desire to influence people by his oratory. That was what drew him
to preaching in the first place, and when he found in ,Jacob
Cochrane a man who could move an audience to frenzy, lift them
out of the body, and do with their spirits as he willed, he
acknowledged him as master. Whether his gospel was a pure and
undefiled religion I doubt, but he certainly was a master of
mesmeric control. My mother was beguiled, entranced, even
bewitched at first, I doubt not, for she translated all that