hiding the fact. Such men, of course, become the laughing-stocks of
the rising generation and the shame of their own."

"All the young are alike, so I needn't grumble at my own family for that
matter," confessed Mr. Best. "Their generation is all equally headstrong
and opinionated--high and low, the same. If I've hinted to Raymond
Ironsyde once, I've hinted a thousand times, that he's not going about
his business in a proper spirit."

"He is at present obviously in love, John, and must not therefore be
judged. But I share your uneasiness."

"It's wrong, and he knows it, and she ought to know it, too. Sabina, I
mean. I should have given her credit for more sense myself. I thought
she had plenty of self-respect and brains too."

"Things are coming to a crisis in that quarter," prophesied Ernest. "It
is a quality of love that it doesn't stand still, John; and something is
going to happen very shortly. Either it will be given out that they are
betrothed, or else the thing will fade away. Sabina has very fine
instincts; and on his side, he would, I am sure, do nothing unbecoming
his family."

"He has--plenty," declared Mr. Best.

"Nothing about which there would not be two opinions, believe me. The
fact that he has let it go so far makes me think they are engaged. The
young will go their own way about things."

"If it was all right, Sabina Dinnett wouldn't be so miserable," argued
John Best. "She was used to be as cheerful as a bird on a bough; and now
she is not."

"Merely showing that the climax is at hand. I have seen myself lately
that Sabina was unhappy and even taxed her with it; but she denied it.
Her mother, however, knows that she is a good deal perturbed. We must
hope for the best."

"And what is the best?" asked John.

"There is not the slightest difficulty about that; the best is what will
happen," replied Mr. Churchouse. "As a good Christian you know it
perfectly well."

But the other shook his head.

"That won't do," he answered, "that's only evasion, Mister Ernest.
There's lots and lots of things happen, and the better the Christian
you are, the better you know they ought not to happen. And whether they
are engaged to be married, or whether they quarrel, trouble must come of
it. If people do wrong, it's no good for Christians to say the issue
must be right. That's simply weak-minded. You might as well argue
nothing wrong ever does happen, since nothing can happen without the
will of God."

"I