“Things have been all upside down in the world, Sister Fanny,” he answered, “and the Priesthood is going to set them all in order. It is the women’s place to minister to the men, and the men, in return, will save them in the Kingdom, if they are good girls.”
By this time we had driven round several of his fields in the lower part of the city, and at last we stopped at the house of one of his wives. She very kindly prepared breakfast for us; after which we called to see two or three other wives, and then returned home. On the way back he tried to get me to promise that I would persuade my husband to marry Miss Grant. This I positively refused to do, although it would have been dangerous for me not to acquiesce had it not been that Brother Heber was attached to me and allowed me to say what I liked against Polygamy, laughing at me and telling me to “hold on” when I became too much in earnest.
This constant reference to Carrie began to trouble me seriously, although, so far, I had not yet spoken about it either to her or to my husband, and did not intend to do it. I felt sure that Carrie, poor child, was perfectly innocent; she had refused to go to several parties with us, and had otherwise declined to accompany my husband, and I believed that I had no cause for uneasiness.
Thus time passed, and more than a year flew by, and Carrie still remained with me. Lately I thought that her manner was changed, and that she was a good deal altered. I noticed that she was shy when in the presence of my husband, and that she rather avoided him. For a long time I had not suspected that anything was wrong between them, and the knowledge that Carrie was troubled, and that my husband was the cause, came upon me suddenly. She began by staying away for several days at a time, and at last she told me that she was going away for a while to visit a friend in the country. She looked so unhappy that I felt sure that all was not right, and begged her not to go, but she would not listen to me. It was necessary for her to go, she stated, and would say no more. She bade me good-bye, and for two months I heard nothing of her, supposing that she was in the country, and then I was surprised to learn that she was visiting with a friend in another part of the city, and that she was very ill indeed. I immediately went to call upon her, and she was very much pleased to see me, and then I discovered that she had not been in the country at all, but had been there in the city with her friend. I could not at the time understand her conduct; but as she, in common with most other delicate people, was rather capricious, I allowed it to pass without any comment. She told me that as soon as she felt a little better she would come and see me; but she never came, and I was somewhat offended at her supposed neglect, and thought that before I visited her again I would wait and see whether she first came up to our house.
All this time, a friend of Carrie’s was in the habit of looking in very frequently upon some trifling errand or other, and I noticed that she always waited for the return of my husband, and then made some excuse to go out with him, and they had long conversations together. There was some mystery, I clearly perceived, and as a wife and a woman I determined that it was my duty to find out what that mystery was.
CHAPTER XXIX.
TAKING A SECOND WIFE:—THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST.
I did not presume to ask my husband what it was that he had to talk about with Carrie’s friend, but I instinctively felt what it might be, and I was so much troubled in mind that I thought I would never go to see her again.