“When we reached the building where Joseph’s store was, they led me up-stairs to a small room and sent down to the store for the Prophet.  When he came up they introduced me and left me alone in the little room with him.  Their actions had seemed queer to me, but I remembered that this man had talked face to face with God, so I tried to feel better.  But all at once he stood before me and asked me to be his wife.  Think of it!  I was so frightened!  I dared not say no, he looked at me so—­I can’t tell you how; but I said it would not be lawful.  He said, ’Yes, Prudence, I have had a revelation from God that it is lawful and right for a man to have as many wives as he wants—­for as it was in the days of Abraham, so it shall be in these days.  Accept me and I shall take you straight to the celestial Kingdom.  Brother Brigham will marry us here, right now, and you can go home to-night and keep it secret from your parents if you like.’  Then I said, ’But I am betrothed to Joel Rae, the son of Giles Rae, who is away on mission.’  ‘I know that,’ he said—­’I sent him away, and anyway you will be safer to marry me.  You will then be absolutely sure of your celestial reward, for in the next world, you know, I am to have powers, thrones, and dominions, while Brother Joel is very young and has not been tried in the Kingdom.  He may fall away and then you would be lost.’”

The man in him now was struggling with his faith, and he seemed about to interrupt her, but she went on excitedly.

“I said I would not want to do anything of the kind without deliberation.  He urged me to have it over, trying to kiss me, and saying he knew it would be right before God; that if there was any sin in it he would take it upon himself.  He said, ’You know I have the keys of the Kingdom, and whatever I bind on earth is bound in heaven.  Come,’ he said, ’nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Let me call Brother Brigham to seal us, and you shall be a star in my crown for ever.’

“Then I broke down and cried, for I was so afraid, and he put his arms around me, but I pushed away, and after awhile I coaxed him to give me until the next Sabbath to think it over, promising on my life to say not one word to any person.  I never let him see me alone again, you may be sure, and at last when other awful tales were told about him here, of wickedness and his drunkenness—­he told in the pulpit that he had been drunk, and that he did it to keep them from worshipping him as a God—­I saw he was a bad, common man, and I told my people everything, and soon my father was denounced for an apostate.  Now, sir, what do you say?”

When she finished he was silent for a time.  Then he spoke, very gently, but with undaunted firmness.

“Prudence, dearest, I have told you that this doctrine is new to me.  I do not yet know its justification.  But that I shall see it to be sanctified after they have taught me, this I know as certainly as I know that Joseph Smith dug up the golden plates of Mormon and Moroni on the hill of Cumorah when the angel of the Lord moved him.  It will be sanctified for those who choose it, I mean.  You know I could never choose it for myself.  But as for others, I must not question.  I know only too well that eternal salvation for me depends upon my accepting manfully and unquestioningly the authority of the temple priesthood.”