These remarks, with the exhilarating petition, caused an amount of irreverent speculation as to who was the person alluded to.  The service was brought to a close without any evidences of spiritual emotion such as had characterized previous meetings, and the people proceeded in groups to their respective homes filled with fertile curiosity, and a sinister suspicion as to who the sinful person was that Jimmy had so fervently prayed for.  But only one person who heard the rugged deliverance fixed her mind on him that was guilty, and she resolved to keep her thoughts a secret, for reasons that will be explained hereafter.  Meanwhile, many innocent men were suspected, and gossip ran rampant.  Jimmy, when asked whom he meant, was piously reticent, and merely answered—­

“That is a matter that concerns God and mysel’!  The time may come when he’ll accuse hissel’.  Aa’m prayin’ mornin’, noon, and night, that the strings of his heart may be broken, and that a penitent condition of mind may take possession of him, and in the fulness of a new borth he may cry aloud, ‘O Lord, once I was blind, noo I see!’”

When Thomas Turnbull and his wife arrived home, they found the younger members of their family in an excited state of hilarity.  The youngest daughter was mimicking Jimmy perfectly, and had her brothers and sister in fits of laughter.  Their father could not refrain from joining in the fun, but the mother was quiet and pensive, and got rather huffed when her husband chided her in his good-humoured way with being indifferent to the happy surroundings.  Poor woman, she was troubled about Jimmy’s prayer, and thought it irreligious to be joyous in the midst of such dark mystery.

The following afternoon, Mrs. Turnbull paid a visit to Mrs. Clarkson, who listened with eager interest to the account of the meeting, and when the words of the closing prayer were conveyed an anxious look came over her countenance, and she made an effort to change the subject, without, however, preventing Mrs. Turnbull from detecting her confusion.

“Let us talk of something else; I do not like,” said she, “conversing about sensational things; it makes me nervous.  And if I were you, I would try to forget what has been said to you about important personages being involved in lawless traffic.  It will only make you unhappy, and serve no good purpose.  If there is anything of the sort going on, it will be discovered, and those that are guilty will be brought to justice.”

Mrs. Turnbull did not pursue the subject any farther, but the sad, pained look of her hostess became fixed in her memory.  She could not shake the conviction from her that Mrs. Clarkson was haunted by the dread of some one belonging to herself having some connection with Jimmy’s prayer.