caused her to do. She struck the girl lightly but testily on the side of
the face.

Ephraim was as foolish as are most men in sight of a damsel in distress.
He made no impartial inquiry into the real cause of trouble; he did not
seek Justice in her place of hiding. He stepped to his mother's side,
stern and determined, remembering only that she was often unwise, and
that he could control her.

"You ought not to have done that. You must never do it again."

With the print of floury fingers on her glowing cheeks the girl sat more
astonished than angry, full of ruth when her aunt began to sob aloud.

The mother knew that she was no longer the first woman in her son's
love.

It was without doubt, Mrs. Croom's first bitter pang of jealousy that
lay at the beginning of those causes which drove Susannah out upon a
strange pilgrimage. But above and beyond her personal jealousy was a
consideration certainly dearer to a woman into whose inmost religious
life was woven the fibre of the partisan. As she expressed it to
herself, she agonised before the Lord in a new fear lest her unconverted
son should be established in his unbelief by love for a woman who had
never sought for heavenly grace; but, in truth, that which she sought
was that both should swear allegiance to her own interpretation of
grace. In this prayer some good came to her, the willingness to
sacrifice her jealousy if need be; but, after the prayer another thought
entered into her mind, which she held to be divine direction; she must
focus all her efforts upon the girl's conversion. In her heart all the