The husband, too, listened not without resignation, reflecting that, when Lorena did not sing, she talked.

For the unspeaking Christina he had learned to feel an admiration that bordered upon reverence, finding in her silence something spiritually great.

Yet of the many-worded Lorena he was never heard to complain through all the years.

The nearest he approached to it was on a day when Elder Beil Wardle had sought to condole with him on the affliction of her ready speech.
"That woman of yours," said this observant friend, "sure takes large pie-bites out of any little talk that happens to get going." "She _does_ have the gift of continuance," her husband had admitted.

But he had added, hastily, "Though her heart is perfect with the Lord." The fact that she was sealed to him for eternity, and that she believed she would constitute one of his claims to exaltation in the celestial world, were often matters of pious speculation with him.