er utter astonishment Virginia soon found herself eating heartily,
utterly at her ease in the cordial, friendly atmosphere of tent-life,
and when Maxwell took her home later in the evening, she hadn't
apologized or wallowed in an agony of self-reproach. She had only
demanded the recipe for the muffins, and had declared that she was
coming again very soon if Mrs. Betty would only let her.

And last but not least--the rector's polite attention in acting as her
escort home failed to work upon her dramatic temperament with any more
startling effect than to produce a feeling that he was a very good
friend.

In fact, she wondered, as she conned over the events of the evening,
whether she had realized before, all that the word _Friendship_
signified.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXII

HEPSEY'S DIPLOMACY

"I don't rightly know what's got into Virginia Bascom," remarked
Jonathan, as he sat on Hepsey's side porch one evening, making polite
conversation as his new habit was. "She's buzzin' round Mrs. Betty
like a bee round a flower--thicker'n thieves they be, by gum."

"Yes," cogitated Hepsey, half to herself, and half in response, "the
lamb's lyin' down all right, and it's about time we'd got the lion
curled up by her and purrin' like a cat. But I don't see the signs of
it, and I'll have to take my knittin' to-morrow and sit right down in
his den and visit with him a little. If he won't purr, I've got
what'll make him roar, good and proper, or I've missed my guess."

"Now Hepsey, you go easy with my church-partner, the Senior Warden.
When his wife lived, he was a decent sort of a feller, was Sylvester
Bascom; and I reckon she got him comin' her way more with molasses
than with vinegar."

And though Hepsey snorted contempt for the advice of a mere male, she
found the thought top-side of her mind as she started out next morning
to pay Bascom a momentous call. After all, Jonathan had but echoed her
own consistent philosophy of life. But with her usual shrewdness she
decided to go armed with both kinds of ammunition.

Mrs. Burke puffed somewhat loudly as she paused on the landing which
led to the door of Bascom's office. After wiping her forehead with her
handkerchief she gave three loud knocks on the painted glass of the
door, which shook some of the loose putty onto the floor. After
knocking the third time some one called out "Come in," and she opened
the door, entered, and gazed calmly across the room. Bascom was