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Clara had, in the meantime, been introduced to the Mother Eldress, a pleasant, fair lady of about forty, who took her round the establishment. The chapel was first visited.
But Eldress Hannah stayed, and Brother Nathan joined her, and for many days the little community was shaken with real anxiety, for they had all come to love the solitary, waiting husband.
"Can I not associate with any one whom I like?" asked Clara afterwards of the Mother Eldress. "It is against the rule," was the answer; "private friendships would destroy the harmony which must exist in our sisterhood." "But cannot I express my sorrow or anxiety to a sympathising friend?" asked Clara, ingenuously.
She ought to be able to, because you have chastened her pride, taught her the lesson of patience, strengthened her will, purified her spirit, and cleansed her soul from bitterness and wrath. I waited till afternoon when all the confessions were over. May I speak now?" Eldress Abby bowed, but she looked weak and stricken and old.
"You know I never argue when I've got anything baking," she said; and taking the spill of a corn-broom from a table-drawer, she opened the oven door and delicately plunged it into the loaf. Then, gazing at the straw as she withdrew it, she said: "You must talk doctrine with Eldress Abby, Susanna, not with me; but I guess doctrine won't help you so much as thinking out your life for yourself.
"Yee, I suppose so," said Eldress Abby, loyally, but it was with a sigh. Had she and Tabitha been left to their own instincts, they would have gone out into the highways and hedges, proselyting with the fervor of Mother Ann's day and generation.
"Oh, I can't bear to disappoint Eldress Abby," cried Hetty, breaking anew into tears. "She'll say we've run away to live on the lower plane after agreeing to crucify Nature and follow the angelic life!" "I know; but there are five hundred people in Albion all living in marriage, and we shan't be the only sinners!" Nathan argued. "Oh, Sister Hetty, dear Hetty, keep up your spirits and trust to me!"
"Oh, I haven't time to pry into other people's thoughts," she said, acidly. And, indeed, just then her time was very full. She was enormously useful to the community that second winter; her young power and strength shone out against the growing weariness of the old sisters. "Athalia's capable," Eldress Hannah said, and the other sisters said "Yee," and smiled at one another.
Susanna lifted Eldress Abby's latch and stood in her strong, patient presence; then all at once she knelt impulsively and looked up into her serene eyes. "Do you come as a Believer, Susanna?" tremblingly asked the Eldress. "No, Eldress Abby. I come as a child of the world who wants to go back to her duty, and hopes to do it better than she ever did before.
The last was Lydia. She was one of our children, and I thought she was of the chosen. But she was only thirty when she fell away, and you can't expect wisdom at that age. That was nearly twenty years ago. When she has tasted the dregs of the world she will come back to us if she lives," Eldress Hannah ended.
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