ther. I promise you it was uncommonly pretty, as well as very
moving."

Nevertheless, Dale remained quite firm. That idea of Hadleigh Wood at
dawn held no attraction for him.

So far he had said nothing of all this to Mavis, but now one night
after supper he broached the subject. He had laid down his knife and
fork, and she had brought him the tobacco jar. He sat filling his pipe
slowly, and then instead of lighting it he put it meditatively aside.

"Mavis, something has happened which will probably surprise you. I
have found religion again."

"Oh, Will, I am glad."

Mavis was delighted; but when he told her that he was about to join
the Baptists she did not feel so well pleased. She scarcely knew what
to say. Why should he want to take the creed of dissenters, of quite
common people? It was all very well for farm-laborers, sempstresses,
and servants; but it did not seem good enough for her Will. Socially
it was without doubt a retrograde step; and nowadays, when he got on
capitally with the best of the gentlefolk, when they were all jolly
and nice to him, it did seem a pity to go and mix himself up with a
pack of ignorant underlings. The gentry, who of course all belonged to
the Church of England, would not like it any better than she herself.

Moreover, that notion of total immersion was extremely repugnant to
her. A grown-up person, an important person, a member of the District
Council, splashing about in a tank! She asked him many questions
concerning the baptism itself, and he told her all that he knew about
it. He did not tell her, however, of Mr. Osborn's proposal that the
immersion should occur in the wood-stream.

"What took your fancy, Will dear, with Mr. Osborn's teaching more than
anybody else's?"

Then he told her all that Mr. Osborn had said of the fatherly
attributes of God, of the fact that men were veritably His children,
and that for communion with God one must be as a child approaching a
father.

"Yes, dear, I'm sure that's true. But Mr. Norton would say just the
same."

"He never _has_ said it, Mav. That is, I never heard him say it."

"Perhaps in those days you didn't note his words. I'm not arguing,
dear. You must do whatever you judge right, and it will be right for
me--if once you've done it. Only I do assure you what you repeated is
altogether Church of England; and I feel certain Mr. Norton must have
said it times and often."

"Then perhaps he hasn't said it quite in the same wa