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It was of no avail, not the slightest. I called on our clergyman-a good man, a good, pious man, I believe-and I begged him to pray for the recovery of my wife. I know he did do so sincerely and earnestly, for he was impressed with the desperate energy of my appeal. It did not serve any purpose. Florence was worse each succeeding unpleasant day, and she did not rally much in the sunshine. I felt bitterly. It seemed as if God had singled me out to vent His vengeance on. Why did he not practise on that hypocrite Goulding?—on Goulding, who, if my wife died, would be really her murderer. I was in a horrible state of mind; I shudder now when I look back to it.

In this way the season advanced into the month of April. I was doing every thing in my power to prepare for the first day of May. On that day we were to leave our house for the one I had rented "up-town." I had endeavored to conceal from my wife that I entertained any apprehension with regard to her health. The physician was always cheerful. I essayed once or twice to ask him his opinion, but the words died on my lips without utterance. My bitterness of feeling was in no degree softened, indeed I think it increased daily. I had discontinued my prayers since I saw they were not to be answered. I felt as if I did not care what God did with me, now that the gates of death were to close on Florence, for she seemed, since she became so weak and delicate, to be the young girl I had wooed in our native village many years before. A tender and a youthful expression overspread her features. Looking at her, I would ask myself: "Is this the promised end?" And I would go aside, not to pray, but to shed tears of anguish

-tears which hardened my heart instead of relieving it, and led me to feel that I was ready to "curse GOD and die.”

All the while I attended to whatever was necessary for me to do-to wit, the various suits of Bulldog, occasional meetings with our assignee, and consultations with Mr. Glynn as to the foreclosure of the premises we lived on. I endeavored to induce him to purchase the house; but this he declined to do, not wishing more property in real estate. He consented, however, to permit the house to be rented for one year, without interference on the part of the purchaser under the mortgage, and would also accommodate me as to the time of sale and in any other matter which should not impair the security. By selling under the mortgage, all possible dispute as to title would be removed, since a deed on the foreclosure would dispose of any question under the sheriff's sale by Bulldog; at the same time, since the buyer would know that the property must come to the hammer, he would not be likely to arrange in advance for its purchase at a sum certain, preferring to attend the sale and bid for it.

I said I attended to my necessary business. I did so mechanically, without the slightest interest in the work. I said mechanically, yet with that species of energy which indifference to whatever may happen always produces; with a singular forecast and shrewdness too, begotten of the same cause. I was moody, it is true, and at times harsh, but I had no more perturbations. The appearance of the sheriff with a dozen warrants of arrest, or the placing of a dozen keepers inside my house (except it might come to the knowledge of Florence) would not have stirred my blood to an extra pulsation. I took a species of grim delight in encoun

tering Bulldog and sternly looking him out of countenance. The fellow was not lacking in knowledge of human nature. He perceived I was at bay, and he wisely took care not to expose himself unnecessarily. He kept on, nevertheless, with the steady prosecution of his various suits and countersuits, but he no longer attempted any personal annoyance. I believe I have stated that Goulding was an elder in the church we were in the habit of attending. Indeed our pew was directly in front of his. Latterly I was careful to be at church regularly, that I might, as opportunity occurred, catch his eye and disturb him by my contemptuous expression. I would sometimes take pains to stop as we were leaving the church and speak to a mutual acquaintance with whom Goulding was already conversing, and enjoy his retreat on my coming up. Once I saw him going into the "lecture-room" to attend the Thursday evening prayer-meeting, and I followed him in and took a seat beside him-a front-seat, such as he loved to select. Presently he was called to lead in prayer. He attempted to go on in his usual glib and unctuous manner, thanking the LORD for all His mercies, and following with a recital of a fearful catalogue of sins, of which he claimed to be guilty (had he been accused of committing the least in the list, he would have resented it with fierce indignation), and triumphantly vindicating his right to be esteemed before his MAKER as the chief of sinners. I perceived, however, that Goulding was considerably embarrassed by my presence. It was evident that while he was praying, some peculiar magnetic relation was springing up between him and the man seated next to him--myself. He was not now in his counting-room dictating terms

which should cause no matter what amount of distress and sorrow, but in the house of God, where his role was to be sanctimonious, exhibiting the calm serenity of a Christian character: dear, wise, good Mr. Goulding. Now, to have the man he was so wickedly persecuting, and whom he was resolved to destroy, present at an exhibition intended for his own peculiar audience: not only present, but evidently by special design, in close proximity; a critic on his words and sentences, an utter disbeliever in their sincerity; this had the effect, as I have said, to establish between Mr. Goulding and me a magnetic relation; and in so doing, displaced his relations with the listening saints around the house. Goulding knew I was saying to him in my heart: "Hypocrite! who devourest widows' houses, and for a pretence makest long prayers." He stammered, he became confused; he prayed that "Satan might continue to have dominion over us." That "we all might have our portion in the lake which burneth with everlasting fire!" The audience, though solemnly composed to worship, began to prick up their ears; a few turned their heads toward their elder, who was evidently wrestling in prayer and apparently getting the worst of it. Goulding became more and more confused, plunged from one bog to another, until he was forced to wind up in much confusion and in a profuse perspiration, before he had completed half his usual performance. For the first time in his life he had made a failure, and I enjoyed his discomfiture.

I have no doubt the reader will consider this either a puerile or a wicked exhibition of my nature. Doubtless it was both. But, I repeat, my design is to give a literal ac

count of what occurred, and to show precisely into what a state of mind I had gradually fallen.

I felt ashamed-I hardly knew why-as I went home. Should my wife ask me where I had been, what would I ? However, with the satisfaction I enjoyed in witnessing Goulding's perturbation, I did not allow that to disturb me much.

say

When I entered the parlor, Florence was reclining on the sofa quite alone. She welcomed me as I came in with unusual tenderness.

"Will you hand me the BIBLE?" she said.

I did so.

"May I read to you?
1?"

"Do."

She read a portion of the address of the ALMIGHTY to Job, commencing: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge ?" begged me to sit near her.

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When she had finished, she

She took my hand, held it

in both of hers, looked anxiously in my face, and said: Charles, here on this spot and at this time, we must not, O Charles! we must not make any mistake. It cannot be, with loss of fortune, of home, of friends, you are also to lose your faith in God's goodness and justice and love. Then, indeed, all is lost. I have regarded you, my husband, of late with trembling; I have watched you anxiously until your very thoughts are clear to me. In what you have. passed through I have been unable to give you any aid, except the little my sympathy afforded. Now, it seems to me that I shall no longer be useless; now I can endeavor

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