CHAPTER XIX.
Eleanor Prency was a miserable young woman during most of the great revival season which followed the special meetings at Dr.Guide's church.

She did not see Ray Bartram as much as of old, for the young man spent most of his evenings at the church, assisting in the work.

He sang no wild hymns, nor did he make any ecstatic speeches; nevertheless his influence was great among his old acquaintances and upon the young men of the town.

To "stand up for prayers" was to the latter class the supreme indication of courage or conviction; and any of them would have preferred to face death itself, at the muzzle of a gun, to taking such a step.

But that was not all; Bartram had for some years been the leader of the unbelievers in the town; the logic of a young man who was smart enough to convince judges on the bench in matters of law was good enough for the general crowd when it was brought to bear upon religion.
As one lounger at Weitz's saloon expressed himself,-- "None of the preachers or deacons or class-leaders was ever able to down that young feller before, but now he's just the same as gone and hollered 'enough.' It's no use for the rest of us to put on airs after that; nobody'll believe us, and like as not he'll be the first man to tell us what fools we be.