inifred wrote a simple, truthful note to Mrs. Butterworth, and was
relieved when it was dispatched. A sensitive dread of criticism and of
doing an unusual thing was offset by the sweet consciousness of a happy
fellowship conserved. No rude breath from the gay assembly's sensuous
delights was to blow upon this flower of communion, so pure, so
fragrant. So Winifred rejoiced, only an occasional shadow falling
athwart her peace when she thought of one whose increasingly intimate
fellowship threatened the life of the fair flower as surely as could
Mrs. Butterworth's party. It was an uneasy suggestion, not a
recognized fact, and she put it hastily from her when it arose.

The evening of the party came and Mrs. Gray prepared herself and went,
not too early and not too foolishly late. She had a faculty of
striking the happy mean in life's proprieties. Winifred looked at her
admiringly, with the candid conviction that no better dressed nor finer
looking woman of her years would be there. She felt a pang of sorrow,
too, in her mother's disappointment at leaving her behind, as she
kissed her good-night. The carriage rolled away and presently bore its
fair passenger to the door of her friend's brilliantly lighted house,
where we will leave her.

CHAPTER X

THE CHURCH SOCIAL

Another social event followed hard on the heels of Mrs. Butterworth's
party, and this Mrs. Gray succeeded in inducing both her son and
daughter to attend, it being no less sacred a function than the
quarterly Church Social. Hubert was not familiar with the institution,
but so ardently burned his love for the Lord Jesus Christ that he now
sought rather than avoided the company of those who knew Him, if so be
some word of Him might be spoken. He longed for the fellowship of joy
with those who, like himself, had been called out of darkness into "His
marvelous light." This was denied in the formal services of the
church, but surely the pent up devotion of the worshipers would find
some avenue of expression when they met together socially without those
restraints. Hubert was disposed to discount his own former estimate of
church-members' sincerity, and did not doubt that many had found an
experience as genuine as his own of the grace of God.

Mr. Gray did not care to go, preferring the library and the new number
with its fascinating leaves uncut of a magazine, religio-worldly, that
had solved for last days the problem beyond the Saviour's ken