bout a fancy church for a Thorbury congregation,
when the plates were again changed, and a dainty dish of sirloin steak,
with mushrooms, and thin slices of delicately browned potatoes, was put
before her.

"Well!" inwardly ejaculated the old lady, "something substantial at last.
But what money this meal must have cost!"

As she cut into the thick, juicy piece of steak, which had been broiled
until it was cooked enough, and not a minute more, Miss Panney's mind
dropped from the consideration of congregational finances into that of
domestic calculation. She knew Kipper's charges; she knew everybody's
charges.

"That dish of fish," she said to herself, "was not less than sixty cents;
the sweetbreads cost a dollar, if they cost a cent; this sirloin, with
mushrooms, was seventy-five cents; that, with the French biscuit, is two
dollars and a half for a family lunch for two people."

Miss Panney did not let her steak get cold, for she could talk and eat at
the same time, and the founder of Methodism never delivered so scorching
a tirade against pomp and show in professors of religion as she gave
forth in his name.

Mrs. Tolbridge had been very quiet during the course of the meal, but
she was now constrained to declare that she had nothing to do with the
plans for the new Methodist church, and, in fact, she knew very little
about them.

"Some things concern all of us," retorted Miss Panney. "Suppose Bishop
White, when he was ordained and came back to this country, had found a
little village--"

Her remarks were stopped by a dish of salad. The young and tender leaves
of lettuce were half concealed by a mayonnaise dressing.

"This makes three dollars," thought Miss Panney, as she helped herself,
"for Kipper never makes any difference, even if you send your own lettuce
to be dressed." And then she went on talking about Bishop White, and what
he would have thought of a little cathedral in every country town.

"But the Methodists do not have cathedrals," said Mrs. Tolbridge.

"Which makes it all the worse when they try to build their
meeting-houses to look like them," replied the old lady.

It was a long time since Miss Panney had tasted any mayonnaise dressing
as good as this. But she remembered that the strawberries were to come,
and did not help herself again to salad.

"If one of the old Methodist circuit-riders," she said, "after toiling
over miles of weary road in the rain or scorching sun, and preaching
sometim