"I was about sixteen."
"Then you were always—inclined that way?" She found some difficulty in conveying her meaning in polite tones.
"Yes; I received a call when I was very young. I became one of the elect at an early age."
"And which are the elect?" his ward asked demurely.
"The members of the Community of the Primitive Trinitarians—or, at least those of them who frequent Purbrook Street Chapel. I hold that the ministers in the other chapels that I have attended do not preach the unadulterated Word, and have therefore missed the narrow path."
"Then," said Kate, "you think that no one will be saved except those who frequent the Purbrook Street Chapel?"
"And not all of them—no, nor one in ten," the merchant said confidently, and with some approach to satisfaction. "Heaven must be a very small place," Kate remarked, as she rose from the table.
"Are you going out?"
"I was thinking of having a stroll in the wood."
"Think over a text as you walk. It is an excellent commencement of the day."