and her evident disappointment, did not leave his mind. He walked slowly
towards the parsonage, his head bent and his hands clasped behind him,
and a questioning anxiety in his face. "I will use every chance to speak
of the certain punishment of the wicked when I visit my people," he said,
"but not in the pulpit. Not where Helen would hear it--yet. In her frame
of mind, treating the whole question somewhat lightly, not realizing its
awful importance, it would be productive of no good. I will try, little
by little, to show her what to believe, and turn her thoughts to truth.
For the present that is enough, that is wisest." And then his heart went
back to her, and how happy they were. He stopped a moment, looking up at
the stars, and saying, with a breathless awe in his voice, "My God, how
good Thou art, how happy I am!"




CHAPTER VII.


The little stir which the arrival of the Forsythes made in Ashurst was
delightful.

"Of course," as Mrs. Dale said, "Arabella Forsythe had not been born
there, and could not be expected to be just like Ashurst people; but it
was something to have a new person to talk to, even if you had to talk
about medicines most of the time."

Lois Howe enjoyed it, for there were very few young people in Ashurst
that summer; the two Drayton girls had gone away to visit a married
brother, and there were no young men now Gifford had gone. So it was