Twice during these years of study and toil was Ray suddenly called back to Afton. The first occasion was during his second year at the college, and was no less an important event than the marriage of Captain Thomas S. Branford, of the steamship Illyria, plying between New York and Liverpool, to Miss Ettie Squire, only daughter of General Burton Squire, of Afton. The marriage service was performed by Rev. Mr. Carleton, at the First Church, after which a brilliant reception was given at the Squire mansion. The bride looked lovely, as brides always do, while few grooms look prouder or handsomer or more manly than did Captain Tom. There were some gossips in the town who were foolish enough to remark: "They could not see what Ettie Squire or her rich and proud father could be thinking of, for once Tom Branford, even if he was a captain now, had been in jail." But this remark being repeated in the hearing of Mrs. Carleton, she in her own quiet, womanly way turned upon the speaker with the question: "Which is better, to marry a man with as marked a Christian character as Captain Branford has for years sustained, even if in his earlier days, and owing to his unfortunate home-training, he did that which was wrong, or to marry a man who has no Christian character, who openly avows his unbelief in all holy things, and has nothing to his credit but a family name and great wealth, the one of which he is liable to disgrace, and the other to lose at any hour?" As the speaker was to marry a man of the latter character at an early day, the question was unanswered; but the gossiping tongue was for the time completely silenced. The other occasion that called Ray suddenly back to Afton occurred just after his first year in the seminary had begun, and was one that brought sorrow to his own as well as to other hearts. It was the death of Mr. Jacob Woodhull. He had come up to the Friday evening service at the First Church as usual, and had taken part in the meeting with more than usual fervor. As he arose to leave the chapel, at the close of the service, he suddenly fell forward on the floor. Dr. Gasque was not over ten feet away, but when he bent over the fallen man he had already expired.