vote against it. He and his wife were taking
lessons from Prue surreptitiously at their own home. Judge Hippisley's
voice would have been louder for war if he had not discovered that his
wife was secretly addicted to the one-step. Old Doctor Brearley was
walking about rehearsing a sermon against it when he happened to enter a
room where Idalene was practising. He wrung from her a confession of the
depth of her iniquity. This knowledge paralyzed his enthusiasm.

Sour old Deacon Flugal was loudly in favor of making an example of Prue.
His wife was even more violent. She happened to mention her disgust to
Mrs. Deacon Luxton:

"I guess this'll put an end to the tango in Carthage!"

"Oh, I hope not!" Mrs. Luxton cried.

"You hope not!"

"Yes, I do. It has done my husband no end of good. It's taken pounds and
pounds of fat off him. It brings out the prespiration on him something
wonderful. And it's taken years off his age. He's that spry and full of
jokes and he's gettin' right spoony. He used to be a tumble cut-up, and
then he settled down so there was no livin' with him. But now he keeps
at me to buy some new clothes and he's thinkin' of gettin' a tuxeda. His
old disp'sition seems to have come back and he's as cheerful and, oh, so
affectionate! It's like a second honeymoon."

Mrs. Luxton gazed off into space with rapture. Mrs. Flugal was so silent
that Mrs. Luxton turned to see if she had walked away in disgust. But
there was in her eyes that light that lies in woman's eyes, and she
turned a delicious tomato-red as she murmured:

"How much, do you s'pose, would a term of lessons cost for my husband?"

XII

Somehow the church failed to take official action. There was loud
criticism still, but phonographs that had hitherto been silent or at
least circumspect were heard to blare forth dance rhythms, and not
always with the soft needle on.

Mrs. Prosser's boarders were mainly past the age when they were liable
to temptation. At first the presence and activities of Prue had added a
tang of much-needed spice to this desert-island existence. They loved to
stare through the door or even to sit in at the lessons. But at the
first blast of the storm that the church had set up they scurried about
in consternation. Mrs. Prosser was informed that her boarding-house was
no longer a fit place for church-fearing ladies. She was warned to
expurgate Prue or lose the others. Mrs. Prosser regretfully banished the
girl.

And no