precept and example, had won not only the heart of this young
maiden, but that of the whole community in which he lived and
labored.




II.

A FEARFUL QUESTION.


Nay, yet there's more in this:
I pray thee, speak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou dost ruminate; and give thy worst of thoughts
The worst of words.
--OTHELLO.

My room-mate was, as I have intimated, exceedingly frail and
unobtrusive in appearance; yet when we came upon this scene, the
group of men about the inanimate form of her lover parted
involuntarily as if a spirit had come upon them; though I do not
think one of them, until that moment, had any suspicion of the
relations between her and their young pastor. Being close behind
her, I pressed forward too, and so it happened that I stood by her
side when her gaze first fell upon her dead lover. Never shall I
forget the cry she uttered, or the solemn silence that fell over
all, as her hand, rigid and white as that of a ghost's, slowly rose
and pointed with awful question at the pallid brow upturned before
her. It seemed as if a spell had fallen, enchaining the roughest