you all into the ark?"

But Flossy's courage had forsaken her; it was born of sympathy with
Eurie's tears. She looked down now, tearful herself, and trembling like
a leaf. Ruth found voice to answer for her.

"Our experience, Dr. Dennis, can be summed up in one word--Chautauqua."

Dr. Dennis gave a little start; another astonishment.

"Do you mean that you were converted during that meeting?"

Marion smiled.

"We do not know enough about terms, to really be sure that that is the
right one to use," she said; "at least, I do not. But we do know this,
that we met the Lord Jesus there, and that, as Flossy says, we love him,
and have given our lives into his keeping."

"You cannot say more than that after a hundred years of experience," he
said, quickly.

"Well, dear friends, I cannot, as I said, express to you my gratitude
and joy. And you are coming into the church, and are ready to take up
work for the Master, and live for him? Thank the Lord."

Little need had our girls to talk of Dr. Dennis' coldness and dignity
after that. How entirely his heart had melted! What a blessed talk they
had! So many questions about Chautauqua, so much to tell that delighted
him. They had not the least idea that it was possible to feel so much at
ease with a minister as they grew to feel with him.

The bell rang and was answered, and yet no one intruded on their quiet,
and the talk went on, until Marion, with a sudden recollection of Nellis
Mitchell, and their appointment with him, stole a glance at her watch,
and was astonished into the announcement:

"Girls, we have been here an hour and a quarter!"

"Is it possible!" Ruth said, rising at once. "Father will be alarmed, I
am afraid."

Dr. Dennis rose also.

"I did not know I was keeping you so," he said. "Our theme was a
fascinating one. Will you wait a moment, and let me make ready to see
you safely home?"

But it appeared, on opening the door, that Nellis Mitchell occupied an
easy-chair in the parlor, just across the hall.

"I'm a patient young man, and at your service," he said, coming toward
them as they emerged. "Please give me credit for promptness. I was here
at the half hour."

As they walked home, Nellis with his sister on one arm, and Flossy
Shipley on the other, he said:

"Now, what am I to understand by this sudden and violent intimacy at the
parsonage? Miss Flossy, my sister has hitherto made yearly calls of two
seconds' duration on the doctor's sister w