nfidential environments of
the Mite Society or the Sewing Circle, they were as reluctant to expose
these to the invidious criticisms of the women of the other churches
as if the discussed ones had been their sisters in fact, and not
simply through sectarian affiliation. Church pride, if nothing else,
contributed to the bridling of their tongues, and checking the free
circulation of gossip.

"Them stuck-up Presbyterian and Episcopalian women think little
enough on us now, the land knows," Mrs. Deborah Pancake explained to a
newly-received sister, whom she was instructing in elementary duties.
"There's no use giving 'em more reason for looking down upon us. We
may talk over each other's short-comings among ourselves, private like,
because the Bible tells us to admonish and watch over each other. But
it don't say that we're to give outsiders any chance to speak ill of our
sisters-in-Christ."

And Mrs. Euphrosyne Pursifer remarked to the latest agreeable accession
to the parish of St. Marks, with that graceful indirection that gave her
the reputation in Sardis of being a feminine Talleyrand:

"Undoubtedly the ladies in these outside denominations are very worthy
women, dear, but a certain circumspection seems advisable in conversing
with them on subjects that we may speak of rather freely among
ourselves."

The rising fervor of the war spirit melted away most of these barriers
to a free interchange of gossip. With the first thrill of pleasure at
finding that patriotism had drawn together those whom the churches
had long held aloof came to all the gushing impulse to cement the
newly-formed relationship by confiding to each other secrets heretofore
jealously guarded. Nor should be forgotten the "narrative stimulus"
every one feels on gaining new listeners to old stories.

It was so graciously condescending in Mrs. Euphrosyne Pursifer to
communicate to Mrs. Elizabeth Baker some few particulars in which her
aristocratic associates of St. Marks had grieved her by not rising to
her standard of womanly dignity and Christian duty, that Mrs. Baker
in turn was only too happy to reciprocate with a similar confidence in
regard to her intimate friends of Wesley Chapel.

It was this sudden lapsing of all restraint that made the waves of
gossip surge like sweeping billows.

And the flotsam that appeared most frequently of late on their crests,
and that was tossed most relentlessly hither and thither, was Rachel
Bond's and Harry G