At fifty years she was still as slender as a girl--tall and too slender, but the small shapely head was set gracefully on the neck as a flower upon its stalk.

Her hair, which was wholly silvered, was still abundant and glossily brushed.

Her mind was not judicial.

She was more quick to decide than to comprehend, full of intense activities and emotions.
"I have heard," said the preacher slowly, "certain distressing rumours concerning--" Mrs.Croom gave an upward bridling motion of her head, and a red spot of indignant fire came in each of her cheeks.

"Joe Smith ?", she cried.
"A blasphemous wretch! And there is nothing, Mr.Finney, that so well indicates the luke-warmishness into which so many have fallen as that his blasphemy is made a jest of." Ephraim moved uneasily in his chair.
Mr.Croom made a remark brief and judicial.