His method was extremely simple: the results certain.
When he learned of Hope's trip to Gordon's Mills and the long ride in the
night alone with Dan, the Judge fairly hugged himself. It was all so
easy!
In the two days preceding the next weekly meeting of the Ladies' Aid
Society, it happened, quite incidentally, that the Elder had quiet,
confidential talks with several of the most active workers in the
congregation. The Judge in these talks did not openly charge the minister
with wrong conduct, with any neglect of his duties, or with any
unfaithfulness to the doctrines. No indeed! The Judge was not such a
bungler in the art of directing the strength of the Ally in serving his
own ends. But nevertheless, each good sister, when the interview was
ended, felt that she had been trusted with the confidence of the very
inside of the innermost circle; felt her heart swell with the
responsibility of a state secret of vast importance; and her soul grow
big with a righteous determination to be worthy.
That was a Ladies' Aid meeting to be remembered. There had been nothing
like it since the last meeting of its kind. For of course, every sister
who had talked with the Judge was determined that every other sister
should understand that she was on the innermost inside; and every other
sister who had talked with the Judge was equally fired with the same
purpose; and the sisters who had not talked quietly with the Judge were
extraordinarily active in creating the impression that they knew even
more than those who had.
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