ooked forward with some pleasurable sense of
anticipation. She belonged to the church herself, so did her father and
mother, and she had long been of the opinion that a little religion was
a very good thing for a young man who was in business and subject to
temptation. But, as she regarded the events of the past few evenings as
reported by people who had been to the meetings, she became more than
ever of the opinion that a little religion would go a long way, and
that Reynolds Bartram had more than was necessary.

To add to her annoyance, some of her intimate acquaintances who knew
that if the two young people were not engaged they certainly were very
fond of each other, and who regarded the match as a matter of course in
the near future, began to twit her on the possibility of her lover
becoming a minister should he go on in his present earnest course of
trying to save lost souls. The more they talked about her, in her
presence, as a minister's wife, the less she enjoyed the prospect.
Minister's wives in Bruceton were sometimes pretty, but they never
dressed very well, and Miss Eleanor was sure, from what she saw of
their lives, that they never had any good times.

Fuel was added to the fire of her discontent when her mother announced
one morning that Jane Kimper had arrived and would assist the couple at
their sewing. To Eleanor, Jane represented the Kimper family, the head
of which was the cause of Reynolds Bartram's extraordinary course.
Eleanor blamed Sam for all the discomfort to which she had been
subjected on account of Bartram's religious aspirations, and she was
inclined to visit upon the new seamstress the blame for all the
annoyances from which she had suffered.

Like a great many other girls who are quite affectionate daughters, she
neglected to make a confidante of her mother; and Mrs. Prency was
therefore very much surprised, on entering the room after a short
shopping-tour, to discover the two young women in utter silence,
Eleanor looking greatly vexed and the new sewing-woman very much
distressed about something. The older lady endeavored to engage the
couple in conversation. After waiting a little while for the situation
to make itself manifest, but getting only very short replies, she left
the room and made an excuse to call her daughter after her.

"My dear child, what is the matter? Doesn't Jane know how to sew?"

"Yes," said Eleanor, "I suppose so; but she knows how to talk, too, and
she has d