“I suppose so, Mr. Smith.”

“It is not enough to suppose, Sister Halsey, for it is clearly written that when the Jews went contrary to the will of the Lord they were given over into the hands of their enemies.”

Susannah endeavoured to give a more unqualified assent.

“Sister Halsey, there has come to my soul in reading this book in these last days a word, and I know not if it be the word of the Lord or no.”

She saw with astonishment that his whole frame was trembling now.  She began to realise that he was truly in trouble, whether because of the greatness of the revelation or because of private distress she could not tell.  She became more pitiful.

“I hope you are well, Mr. Smith, and that Emma is well.  There is nothing to really distress you, is there?”

In hearing the increased gentleness of her tone he seemed to find a more easy expression for his pent-up feeling.  “It’s come upon me in a very cutting way, truly as the prophets said like a two-edged sword, and at the time too when I was inquiring of the Lord concerning—­” He stopped here, and she felt that his manner grew more confidential, but he did not look at her, his eyes sought the ground—­“concerning a matter which has given me no little heart searching.”  He stopped again, she listening with a good deal of interest.

“It’s come to me to observe that among the chosen people—­there ain’t no gainsayin’ it, Sister Halsey, though I trust you to be discreet and not mention the matter, but in the days when the divine favour rested on Israel each man had more than one wife; and the Lord Himself says He give them to Solomon, the only objection being to heathen partners.”

“Do you mean, Mr. Smith, that I’m not to mention what everybody knows already, that in the Old Testament times polygamy was practised?”

The now entire lack of sympathy in her tone affected him as an intentional act of rudeness would affect an ordinary man.  The tissue of his mind, which had relaxed into confidence, grew visibly firmer.  He assumed the teaching tone.

“No, Mrs. Halsey, the only thing that I asked you not to mention was that I had any light of revelation on a point on which most of our minds is already made up.”

“Mr. Smith, you can’t possibly be in the slightest doubt but that it would be very wicked for any man now to have more than one wife.”

“I’ve heard a great many of the ministers who in times past, in the time of our bondage we heard and believed, say as it would be very wicked for any one nowadays to take God at His word and expect Him to do a miracle or heal the sick; but I’ve come to the conclusion, Mrs. Halsey, that it isn’t a question of what we in our ignorance and prejudice might think wicked, but it’s a question of what’s taught in this book, looked at without the eye of prejudice and tradition.  What we call civilisation is too often devilisation—­devilisation, Mrs. Halsey.”