e was even an electric tram that ran straight through
the town and some distance into the country on either side. The general
store had a gaily dressed lay figure in its window,--a female
figure,--and its gown was labelled 'The Latest Parisian Novelty.'

The theological student was going out to take tea. He was a tall, active
fellow, and his long strides soon brought him to a house a little way
out of the town, which was evidently the abode of some degree of taste
and luxury. The house was of wood, painted in dull colours of red and
brown; it had large comfortable verandahs under shingled roofs. Its
garden was not old-fashioned in the least; but though it aspired to
trimness the grass had not grown there long enough to make a good lawn,
so the ribbon flower-beds and plaster vases of flowers lacked the
green-velvet setting that would have made them appear better. The
student was the less likely to criticise the lawn because a very pretty,
fresh-looking girl met him at the gate.

She was really a fine girl. Her dress showed rather more effort at
fashion than was quite in keeping with her very rural surroundings, and
her speech and accent betrayed a childhood spent among uneducated folk
and only overlaid by more recent schooling. Her face had the best parts
of beauty: health and good sense were written there, also flashes of
humour and an habitual sweet seriousness. She had chanced to be at the
gate gathering flowers. Her reception of the student was frank, and yet
there was just a touch of blushing dignity about it which suggested that
she took a special interest in him. The student also, it would appear,
took an interest in her, for, on their way to the house, he made a
variety of remarks upon the weather which proved that he was a little
excited and unable to observe that he was talking nonsense.

In a little while the family were gathered round the tea-table. The
girl, Miss Torrance by name, sat at the head of the table. Her father
was a banker and insurance agent. He sat opposite his eldest daughter
and did the honours of the meal with the utmost hospitality, yet with
reserve of manner caused by his evident consciousness that his grammar
and manners were not equal to those of his children and their guest.
There were several daughters and two sons younger than Miss Torrance.
They talked with vivacity.

The conversation soon turned upon the fact that the abundant supply of
cream to which the family were accustomed wa