" He thrust his ruddy face nearer, staring fixedly into
hers. "Answer me that! Feel just the same? Exactly the same? No
cooling off in the intention to call? _Quite_ sure you never used the
expression, `only Dissenters!' and passed by on the other side?"

Margot's cheeks blazed. Her lids dropped, and the corners of her mouth
drooped in self-conscious shame. There was a moment's silence, then a
low murmur sounded on her ear, and, looking up quickly, she saw the
Editor's dark face turned upon his brother, with reproach written large
in frowning brow and flashing eye. He was taking up the cudgels in her
defence; reproaching his own brother for forcing her into an awkward
position.

Margot's heart gave a leap of joy at the discovery; in the flash of an
eye her mood, her outlook on life, the very scene itself, seemed
transfused with new radiance and joy. The sun seemed to peep out
through the grey clouds, the underlying anxiety and worry of the past
days took to itself wings, and disappeared. Her brown eyes thanked him
with a glance more eloquent than she was aware; she laughed softly, and
her laugh was sweet as a chime of bells.

"Yes, I have! I confess it. I've been narrow-minded and uncharitable,
and a snob into the bargain. I've no right to throw stones... What
Church do you belong to, Mr Elgood?"

The little man stood still in the middle of the road, throwing out his
arms on either side, with a gesture wonderfully eloquent. His round,
chubby face shone with earnestness and exaltation.

"To the Church of Christ! The Church of loyalty, and obedience, and
love towards the brethren! To the Church of Christ, wherever I find it!
When will Christians learn to remember the points on which they agree,
rather than those on which they differ? The questions of form and
ceremony; of Church government and ritual; how small they are, how
unutterably trivial, compared to the great facts of the Fatherhood of
God, and the sacrifice of Christ! Did the Power who made every one of
us with different faces and different forms, expect us all to think
mathematically alike? I cannot believe it! It is our duty to trust in
God and love our brethren; to live together in peace, seeing the best in
each other, acknowledging the best, thinking no evil! To see men who
make a profession of religion quarrelling and persecuting each other for
trivial differences, is a ghastly spectacle--a ghastly spectacle!" He
walked on, swing