ning; and they determined
to adhere rigidly to the rules."

"I have no doubt they will, so far as lies in their power," the
gentleman said, with an attempt at courtesy in his manner. "But the
trouble is, the thing is absurd on the face of it. If I hold a ticket
for an entertainment, which the Association have sold to me, it is none
of their business on what day I present it, provided the entertainment
is in progress. They have no right to keep me out, and they are
swindling me out of so much money if they do it."

"You have changed your argument," Marion said, with a flash of humor in
her eyes. "You were talking about the amount of money that the
Association were to earn to-morrow, not the amount which you were to
lose by not being allowed to come in. However, I am willing to talk from
that standpoint. If you hold the _season_ ticket of the Association, and
are stopping outside, you will be admitted, of course. It is held to be
as reasonable a way to go to church as though you harnessed your horses
at home and drove, on the Sabbath, to your regular place of worship. But
you buy no ticket _for_ the Sabbath, and none is received from you; and
if you choose not to go, the Association neither makes nor loses by the
operation, and, so far as money is concerned, is entirely indifferent
which you decide to do. What fault can possibly be found with such an
arrangement?"

"Well," said the gentleman, with a quiet positiveness of tone, "I
haven't a season ticket, and I don't mean to buy one, and I mean to go
down there to meeting to-morrow, and I expect to get in."

"I dare say," Marion answered, with glowing cheeks. "The grounds are
extensive, you know, and they are not walled in. I haven't the least
doubt but that hundreds can creep through the brush, and so have the
gospel free. There is something about 'he that climbeth up some other
way being a thief and a robber;' but, of course, the writer could not
have had Chautauqua in mind; and even if it applies, it would be only
stealing from an Association, which is not stealing at all, you know."

"You are hard on me," the gentleman said, flushing in his turn, and the
listeners, of whom there were many, laughed and seemed to enjoy the
flashing of words. "I have no intention of creeping or climbing in. I
shall present the same sort of ticket which took me in to-day, and if it
doesn't pass me I will send you a dispatch to let you know, if you will
give me your address."

"And i