"Did you see him?" she asked, not in the best of humor, now that the worry was practically over.
"Sawyer? No, he's out in the country, so a man told me. I have decided to dismiss the matter from my mind or to think about it as little as possible. It isn't so very late yet," he added, looking at his watch. He found his slippers beside his chair when he entered the sitting-room, but he shoved them away with his foot.
"Did Mr. Menifee have anything of interest to say?" he asked, leaning with his elbows on the table.
"It may not interest you, but it has been put to Eva and me as a matter of duty, that we ought to go out to Mt. Zion to hear Henry Bostic preach."
McElwin grunted: "Menifee may put it as a matter of duty, but I don't. Fortunately I have other duties that are of much more importance. I will not go."
"He didn't seem to expect that you would," she replied.
"I hope not. He may have reason to believe me worldly in some things, but I trust he has never found me ridiculous."
"Would it be ridiculous to hear that young man preach?"
"For me to hear him? Decidedly. The true gospel has not been handed over to the keeping of the malicious idiot, I hope."
"I believe he is sincere."