"I am glad you have come," said Mrs. D----, bitterly, seating herself on the sofa. "I am glad to see any person enter this house, who isn't all eaten up with the evils of society. I have heard about the evils of society till I'm heartily sick of them. People that come to see Pendlam don't generally talk about anything else. It's the ruin of him, as I tell Susan; I never in this world can be reconciled to his leaving his church." Mrs. D---- became confidential, and abused her daughter's husband in a style which did not argue much for the peace of his household during that energetic lady's visits. Her indignation against him had quite swallowed up her old cherished resentment against myself. She soon went so far as to insinuate a regret that Susan had not married a man of solid sense and some mental ballast, (meaning me,) instead of a hotheaded reformer. Susan reentered. "Mr. Pendlam is very busy; but he will come down presently." She sighed, and took a seat. Mrs. D---- continued her abuse of her son-in-law, in her daughter's presence,--which I thought in very bad taste, to say the least. Susan uttered not one word in her husband's defence, but simply sat and sighed. I defended and praised him; for which act of friendship I earned not one look of gratitude from her, and only contempt and sneers from her mother. I was glad when Pendlam appeared. He was looking care-worn and toil-worn; his expression had grown more intense than ever. His face lighted up a little at sight of me; but it was some minutes before his mind seemed capable of extricating itself from its abstractions, and meeting me upon social grounds. "You will excuse me. I am heartily rejoiced to see you. I was hard at work. Just pass your hand over my forehead; it will relieve the pressure upon my brain. My mission is now fully revealed to me; everything is reform, reform. I have been led here step by step. Your magnetism is very soothing. The old crumbling walls of creeds and conventionalities are to be swept away, and their foundations subjected to the plough and the harrow. I am in the harness. I have no motive for concealment; I tell you frankly where I stand," said Pendlam. Another long sigh from Susan. Mrs. D---- tossed her contemptuous chin, and expressed scorn in divers significant ways. "I should want to conceal a little, if I was in your place," she remarked, cuttingly. "Truth is truth; it can harm only those who are in error," said Pendlam. "It certainly hasn't done you a very great amount of good." Another toss of the contemptuous chin. "On the contrary, it has done me incalculable good," answered the son-in-law, with a smile. "Oh! you consider it good, then, to be cut off from the church,--to give up a good situation and sure salary,--to lose the respect of everybody whose respect is worth having!" "If I have done all this for the truth's sake, it is good,"--the reformer's face kindled with enthusiasm,--"and I for one find it good."