"He has just gone," answered Bethany. "I asked him, but he declined on account of a previous engagement. O, Cousin Frank," she exclaimed, "I do believe he is almost convinced of the truth of Christianity!" She repeated the conversation that had just taken place. "He has been fighting against that conviction for some time," answered Mr. Marion. "I had a talk with him last week." "What do you suppose Rabbi Barthold would say if Mr. Herschel should become a Christian?" asked Bethany. "Ah, I asked the old gentleman that very question yesterday," exclaimed Mr. Cragmore. "It astounded him at first. I could see that the mere thought of such apostasy in one he loves as dearly as his young David, wounded him sorely. O, it grieved him to the heart! But he is a noble soul, broad-minded and generous. He did not answer for a moment, and when he finally spoke I could see what an effort the words cost him: "'David is a child no longer,' he said, slowly. 'He has a right to choose for himself. I would rather read the rites of burial over his dead body than to see him cut loose from the faith in which I have so carefully trained him; but no matter what course he pursues, I am sure of one thing, his absolute honesty of purpose. Whatever he does, will be from a deep conviction of right. I, who was denounced and misunderstood in my youth because I cast aside the weight of orthodoxy that bound me down spiritually, should be the last one to condemn the same independence of thought in others.'" "Herschel would have less opposition to contend with than any Jew I know," remarked Mr. Marion. "That little sister of his would be rather pleased than otherwise, and, I think, would soon follow his example." Bethany thought of Esther, but said nothing. "We'll make it a subject of prayer to-night," said Cragmore, who had been appointed to lead the meeting. "Yes," answered Marion, clapping his friend on the shoulder. Then he quoted emphatically: "'And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.'" "Let's ask him right now!" cried Cragmore, in his impetuous way. He slipped the bolt in the door, and kneeling beside David's desk, began praying for his absent friend as he would have pleaded for his life. Then Marion followed with the same unfaltering earnestness, and after his voice ceased, Bethany took up the petition. "Nobody need tell me that those prayers are not heard," exclaimed Marion, triumphantly, as he arose from his knees. "I know better. Come, Bethany; if you are ready to go, we will walk as far as the avenue with you." As they went down-stairs together, he kept singing softly under his breath, "Blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord!" By ten o'clock the League-room of the Garrison Avenue Church was crowded.