t over it. It was a stupid turn
for affairs to take as regarded himself; for perpetual meetings at the
choir, with the pleasant walks attached, and frequent private
rehearsals in the Gray drawing-room had furnished admirable facilities
for the courtship of whose issue he had not a doubt. But it was far
from a misfortune that could not be mended. He should miss her
immensely, of course, but there were other pleasant people in the choir
and he held an easy popularity among them. Then he was too well
ingratiated in her favor and as a frequent guest at her house to be
displaced by this matter. He should still do the attentive in every
available way. But he hoped she was not getting fanatical. It would
be inexpressibly stupid to have a wife over pious, with extreme views
about things. He should like her to be religious up to a certain
point. He thought women ought to be that. It was a good thing to have
somebody in a house who knew something about those things in case of
trouble. Mr. Frothingham was himself in the insurance business--at the
head of a prominent company's office for that city--and he was
accustomed to take business-like account of life risks, and to
recognize death as a hard factor to be dealt with. Just now he
unconsciously erected a kind of spiritual lightning rod against his
future house in the piety of its expected mistress. But he hoped she
would not get too religious--not enough so to interfere with the life
of gayety which he expected to continue for many a year. But it did
not occur to him to relinquish her even if she should begin to show
symptoms of extreme views. He was rather fond of Winifred--quite so,
in fact; and he was not indifferent to "the old man's ducats," as he
had confided to himself and to one or two most intimate friends. On
the whole he congratulated himself on pleasant prospects ahead, and was
not too much disconcerted by his own appearance alone at the rehearsal.

Winifred spent the evening rather ill at ease. Its pleasant habit was
broken up. Had she been foolish? Was she not taking an unheard-of
stand? Would it have been better to go along and conform her course to
the popular conscience instead of her own, perhaps very silly, one?
She should be laughed at, and it was miserable to be laughed at or
thought eccentric. She tried to play the piano, but imagined strains
from the Redemption interrupted her. She went to talk with her mother,
but found her seated b