It was in those lands the habit of religious men of all sects to make oratories of the woods.

Susannah's only desire was to pass and leave him undisturbed, but he spoke.
He began severely, "Sister Susannah Halsey, it is not meet that a woman should stray so far from home and without companions." For a moment Susannah stood abashed.

Unaccustomed to censure, she supposed that she must have done wrong.

"I have walked this way before," she began meekly, "but if--" She stopped here, her own judgment in the matter beginning to assert itself.
The prophet had forgotten his reproof.

At all times his conversation was apt to reveal that sudden changes of mental phase took place within him apparently without conscious volition.