Lois stopped: the two daughters looked at her excitement with a
kind of shrinking surprise, for the tears were in her eyes. Elder
Hawkins shook his head, and muttered texts from Scripture; but
cheerful Widow Smith, not liking the gloomy turn of the
conversation, tried to give it a lighter cast by saying, 'And I
don't doubt but what the parson's bonny lass has bewitched many a
one since, with her dimples and her pleasant ways — eh, Captain
Holdernesse? It's you must tell us tales of this young lass' doings
in England.'
'Ay, ay,' said the captain, 'there's one under her charms in
Warwickshire who will never get the better of it, I'm
thinking.'
Elder Hawkins rose to speak; he stood leaning on his hands,
which were placed on the table: 'Brethren,' said he, 'I must
upbraid you if
