e of
her pauses in the game.

"Col. Baker, don't you really know at all what arguments clergymen have
against card-playing for amusement?"

Again that expressive shrug; but it had lost its power over Flossy, and
its owner saw it, and made haste to answer her waiting eyes.

"I really am not familiar with their weapons of warfare; probably I
could not appreciate them if I were; I only know that the entire class
frown upon all such innocent devices for passing a rainy evening. But it
never struck me as strange, because the fact is, they frown equally on
all pastimes and entertainments of any sort; that is, a certain class
do--fanatics, I believe, is the name they are known by. They believe, as
nearly as I am capable of understanding their belief, that life should
be spent in psalm-singing and praying."

Whereupon Flossy called to mind the witty things she had heard, and the
merry laughs which had rung around her at Chautauqua, given by the most
intense of these fanatics; she even remembered that she had seen two of
the most celebrated in that direction playing with a party of young men
and boys on the croquet ground, and laughing most uproariously over
their defeat. It was all nonsense to try to compass her brain with such
an argument as that; she shook her head resolutely.

"They do no such thing; I know some of them very well; I don't know of
any people who have nicer times. How do you know these things, Col.
Baker?"

Col. Baker essayed to be serious:

"Miss Flossy," he said, leaning over and fixing his handsome eyes
impressively on her face, "is it possible you do not know that, as a
rule, clergymen set their faces like a flint against all amusements of
every sort? I do not mean that there are not exceptions, but I do mean
most assuredly that Dr. Dennis is not one of them. He is as rigid as it
is possible for mortal man to be.

"Herein is where the church does harm. In my own opinion, it is to blame
for the most, if not for all, of the excesses of the day; they are the
natural rebound of nerves that have been strained too tightly by the
over-tension of the church."

Surely this was a fine sentence. The Flossy of a few weeks ago would
have admired the smooth-sounding words and the exquisitely modulated
voice as it rolled them forth. How had the present Flossy been quickened
as to her sense of the fitness of things. She laughed mischievously. She
couldn't argue; she did not attempt it. All she said was, simply: