"Excuse me. I will give you my ideas of a spiritual drama another time. I'll take this sermon. I shall read with interest what I had to say on the subject before my mind had attained its present plane. Good night! You see where I am," added Pendlam. Thenceforward the Pendlams were frequent visitors at the theatres. When John Henry was too much occupied to attend, Clodman had the gallantry to escort Susan. This was considered exceedingly kind in Clodman; he not only treated Susan to delightful dramatic performances, but at the same time imparted to her his valuable magnetism. One Sabbath evening Horatio came suddenly upon me in the street, and pulled me breathlessly around a corner. "Wait till I can speak; the miracle of miracles! I have been to--to call on HER; and who do you suppose had been dining with her?" I named successively several noted actress-hunters and snobs, whose names disgusted Horatio. "Who then?" I asked. "Pendlam! Pendlam! Pendlam!" ejaculated Horatio. "He wanted to consult HER upon the subject of creating a Divine Drama, or some such nonsense." "Possibly a new Divine Comedy," I suggested. "She made him stay and dine on Sunday! And will you believe it?--he finds her magnetic impartations, as he calls them, highly agreeable and advantageous to his constitution! Bless him! he isn't the first man who has found them agreeable, if not so advantageous. But she gave him a dose!" "Of what?" "Of bitter truth about Clodman. She knows him for a villain, and told him so. I was there, and glad to hear it. But I was enraged. I could have wrung John Henry Pendlam's neck for him, when he said, with his quiet, charitable, mild, incredulous smile, that he was already aware there existed in the community _a good deal of prejudice_ against Clodman!" Matters were now progressing rapidly to a crisis. One day during the ensuing summer, I asked Horatio the usual question, "Where is Pendlam now?"--referring, as John Henry himself would have said, not to locality, but condition. "That is impossible to say," replied Horatio, "for I have not seen him since yesterday. Then he was situated opposite a bottle of pale sherry, which that rascal Clodman had just brought to the house. They were drinking, and talking over the Organization of Free Disciples. Several wealthy men have become interested in the enterprise, and large amounts have been subscribed. Pendlam is writing a work on the subject." "And Susan?" "Her child is sick, and claims all her attention. They are trying to cure it with magnetisms. Clodman is day and night at the house; his magnetism being considered indispensable for the restoration of the child." A month later, Horatio brought me word that the child was dead. Another month, and I learned that Susan had been sent to some celebrated Western Magnetic Springs for her health. "How did she go?"