when he knew she must start. But in this, too, he was doomed to
disappointment, for the outburst which so stunned the elder detained
Alfaretta until after ten, thereby causing Helen no little anxiety
about her prompt and pretty maid.

The elder had closed his admonitions by warning his daughter not to
be listening to any teachings of the preacher's wife, for she was
a backslider, and she had fallen from grace. "In the first place,"
said the elder, laying down the law with uplifted hand, "she's a
Episcopalian,--I heard her say that herself, when she first come here;
and her letter of dismissal was from a church with some Popish name,--St.
Robert or Stephen,--I don't just remember. I've seen one of those
churches. Thank the Lord, there isn't one in Lockhaven. They have candles
burnin', and a big brass cross. Rags of Popery,--they all belong to the
Scarlet Woman, I tell you! But she's a backslider even from that, fer
they have some truth; she's a child of the Evil One, with her unbelief!"

This was more than Alfaretta could bear. "Indeed, pa," she cried, "you
don't know how good she is, or you wouldn't be sayin' that! Look how
she's slaved this winter fer the families that 'a' been in trouble,
havin' no work!"

"'Tain't what she's done, Alfaretta," said her father solemnly; "works
without faith is of no avail. What says the Scripture? 'A man is
justified by faith' (by faith, Alfaretta!) 'without the deeds of the
law.' And what says the confession?"

Alfaretta, by force of habit, began to stumble through the answer: "'We
cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin, or eternal life at the
hand--at the hand--of God, by reason of'"--Here her memory failed her.