Silas,
feeling bound to accept rebuke and admonition as a brotherly office,
felt no resentment, but only pain, at his friend's doubts concerning
him; and to this was soon added some anxiety at the perception that
Sarah's manner towards him began to exhibit a strange fluctuation
between an effort at an increased manifestation of regard and
involuntary signs of shrinking and dislike. He asked her if she wished
to break off their engagement; but she denied this: their engagement
was known to the church, and had been recognized in the
prayer-meetings; it could not be broken off without strict
investigation, and Sarah could render no reason that would be
sanctioned by the feeling of the community. At this time the senior
deacon was taken dangerously ill, and, being a childless widower, he
was tended night and day by some of the younger brethren or sisters.
Silas frequently took his turn in the night-watching with William, the
one relieving the other at two in the morning. The old man, contrary
to expectation, seemed to be on the way to recovery, when one night
Silas, sitting up by his bedside, observed that his usually audible
breathing had ceased. The candle was burning low, and he had to lift
it to see the patient's face distinctly. Examination convinced him
that the deacon was dead- had been dead some time, for the limbs
were rigid. Silas asked himself if he had been asleep, and looked at
the clock: it was already four in the morning.
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