And this, as I say it, is intended to convey no scoff against that excellent lady.

She was an excellent lady--unselfish, given to self-restraint, generous, pious, looking to find in her religion a safe path through life--a path as safe as the facts of Adam's fall would allow her feet to find.

She was a woman fearing much for others, but fearing also much for herself, striving to maintain her house in godliness, hating sin, and struggling with the weakness of her humanity so that she might not allow herself to hate the sinners.

But her hatred for the sin she found herself bound at all times to pronounce--to show it by some act at all seasons.

To fight the devil was her work--was the appointed work of every living soul, if only living souls could be made to acknowledge the necessity of the task.