Now I began to wonder what lay behind the visible conditions about me.

Perhaps the experience was beneficial, as it is quite necessary for a young girl, thrown wholly on herself for the first time among strangers, to learn caution in all she says and does.

The atmosphere of home life, where all disguises and pretensions are thrown off, is quite different from a large school of girls, with the petty jealousies and antagonisms that arise in daily competition in their dress, studies, accomplishments, and amusements.
The next happening in Troy that seriously influenced my character was the advent of the Rev.Charles G.Finney, a pulpit orator, who, as a terrifier of human souls, proved himself the equal of Savonarola.

He held a protracted meeting in the Rev.Dr.Beaman's church, which many of my schoolmates attended.

The result of six weeks of untiring effort on the part of Mr.Finney and his confreres was one of those intense revival seasons that swept over the city and through the seminary like an epidemic, attacking in its worst form the most susceptible.