“Why, Roger, I was to a funeral once over to the Ridge where the corpse was an unbaptized infant, and you ought to have heard that preacher describin’ the abode of the lost!  The child’s mother fainted dead away and had to be carried out of the church, it was that powerful and movin’.  That was somethin’ like!”

It was in Roger’s mind to say he was glad that the minister had not made Barbara faint, but he wisely kept silent.

[Sidenote:  Life in the City]

“That’s only one thing,” Miss Mattie went on.  “What with religion bein’ in that condition in the city, and the life folks live there, I don’t think it’s any fit place for a person that ain’t strong in the faith, and you know you ain’t, Roger.  You take after your pa.

“I was readin’ in The Metropolitan Weekly only last week a story about a lovely young orphan that was caught one night by a rejected suitor and tied to the railroad track.  Just as the train was goin’ to run over her, the man she wanted to marry come along on the dead run with a knife and cut her bonds.  She got off the track just as the night express come around the curve, goin’ ninety-five miles an hour.

[Sidenote:  Miss Mattie’s Fears]

“This man says to her, ’Genevieve, will you come to me now, and let me put you out of this dread villain’s power forever?’ Then he opened his arms and the beautiful Genevieve fled to them as to some ark of safety and laid her pale and weary face upon his lovin’ and forgivin’ heart.  That’s the exact endin’ of it, and I must say it’s written beautiful, but when I wake up in the night and think about it, I get scared to have you go.

“You ain’t so bad lookin’, Roger, and you’re gettin’ to the age where you might be expected to take notice, and what if some designing female should tie you to the railroad track?  I declare, it makes me nervous to think of it.”

Roger did not like to shake his mother’s faith in The Metropolitan Weekly, but he longed to set her fears at rest.  “Those things aren’t true, Mother,” he said, kindly.  “They not only haven’t happened, but they couldn’t happen—­it’s impossible.”

“Roger, what do you mean by sayin’ such things.  Of course it’s true, or it wouldn’t be in the paper.  Ain’t it right there in print, as plain as the nose on your face?  You can see for yourself.  I hope studyin’ law ain’t goin’ to make an infidel of you.”

“I don’t think it will,” temporised Roger.  “I’ll keep a close watch for designing females, and will avoid railroad tracks at night.”

Miss Mattie shook her head doubtfully.  “That ain’t a goin’ to do no good, Roger, if they once get set after you.  I’ve noticed that the villain always triumphs.”

“But only for a little while, Mother.  Surely you must have seen that?”

[Sidenote:  The Villain Foiled]