ans stay away from such places;
or, if they come, they float off to Saratoga or some more kindred
climate. I beg your pardon, Ruthie, that doesn't mean you, you know,
because you are not one of any sort."

"Then do you take it to be their religion which inclines you to trust
to their word, without having an individual acquaintance with them?"

Marion shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh, bother!" she said, gayly, "you are not turning theologian, or
police detective in search of suspicious characters, are you? I never
pretend to pry into my notions for and against people and things; if I
was betrayed into anything that sounded like common sense I beg your
pardon. I am out on a frolic, and mean to have it if there is any such
thing."

"Well, before you go back into absolute nonsense let me ask you one more
question. Do you really feel as deeply as you pretended to that man, on
all these questions of the Chautauqua conscience? I mean, is it a vital
point in your estimation whether people go there to church on Sunday or
not?"

Marion hesitated, and a fine glow deepened on her face as she said,
after a little, speaking with grave dignity:

"I do not know that I can explain myself to you, Ruth, and I dare say
that I seem to you like a bundle of contradictions; but it is a real
pleasure to me to come in contact with people who have earnest faith
and eager enthusiasm over _anything_, and principle enough to stand by
their views through evil and good report. In this way, and to a great
degree, this meeting is a positive delight to me, though I know
personally as little about the feeling from which they think their
actions take rise as any mortal can. Does that answer satisfy you, my
blessed mother confessor? or are you more muddled than ever over what I
do, and especially over what I do _not_ believe?"

"If I believed as much as you do I should look further."

Ruth said this with emphasis; and there was that in it which, despite
her attempts to throw it off, set Marion to thinking, and kept her
wonderfully quiet during their return trip.

On the whole, the flight to Mayville was not viewed entirely in the
light of a success. Ruth had been quiet and grave for some time, when
she suddenly spoke in her most composed and decided voice:

"I shall go to Saratoga on Monday, whether any one else will or not; I
shall find plenty of friends to welcome me, and I shall take the
morning train from here."

But she didn't.

Meantime Fl