hingham did. I saw him--eh, Winnie, what's
the matter?"

For Winifred had turned a quivering face toward her brother.

"I didn't, Hubert," she said. "There was no grace in my heart." And
then she hastened up the stairs to her room.

"Hm-m!" said Hubert reflectively, and repeated the observation at
intervals until dinner was served.

CHAPTER II

THE HOUSE OF GRAY

The family gathered for dinner with its usual decorum. Winifred sat
opposite the young minister, and Hubert was beside him. Mr. Robert
Gray carved the turkey with his usual skill and the sharpest of knives.
He began his anticipated discussion with the preacher:

"Your sermon fitted pretty closely to-day, Mr. Bond," he said, as he
separated a joint successfully.

"Did it really?" said Mr. Bond, with a smile that lit up a singularly
pleasant face. "I am glad to hear it. That is what sermons are for, I
believe?"

"Just so," said Mr. Gray, and he added with a little chuckle of
enjoyment, "I like it--I like it. We need it, I assure you. There is
no question about that. Why, Winnie, not a bit of the fowl? You are
losing your appetite, child. Yes, sir, we need to be stirred up. If
there is anything I believe in, it is sincerity. But now, don't you
think, Mr. Bond, that you put it just a little grain too stiff?"

"In what way, Mr. Gray?"

"Well, now, I say the Apostles' Creed. I know it by heart. I don't
know how many hundreds of times I have said it. It says itself.
Perhaps that is why I don't always stop to think what it does say. But
I do not suppose there is a word in it that I do not believe. Now if
my mind happens to wander while I am, saying it--if it happens, mind
you--"

"Father, Julia is waiting for Mr. Bond's plate," interposed Mrs. Gray
softly from the other end of the table.

"I beg your pardon." Then, as the delinquent plate went to its
destination, "If my mind happens to wander to some little matter of
business, or something or other, while I say the Creed--_am I a
hypocrite_?"

The merchant propounded the question with a note of triumph, as though
the bold-spoken minister were rather cornered now. Mr. Bond answered
respectfully, but with subdued amusement:

"I think, Mr. Gray, that the Lord would recognize the absence of
insincere intent, but that so far as worship goes, you might as well
set some Tibetan prayer-wheels going."

A gleam of enjoyment shot from Hubert's eyes, and a laugh almost
escaped him.