e showed him over house and
garden in the best of spirits. 'It is rather strange,' he said, as he
sat at dinner with them that night, 'but one of my sisters knows a lady
in this neighbourhood, and she thinks you will like her. She lives
somewhere on the outskirts of Brambleton. A Miss Villars. She is a
charming woman, I hear, very comfortably off, but rather eccentric in
the way she spends her money. My sister wrote to her when she knew of
your arrival here, so you may have a visit from her soon.'

'Is she an old maid?' asked Elfie; 'because we have seen one, and, I
was going to say, don't want to see another.'

Clare related their adventure in the church, and Captain Knox was much
amused.

'I do not think there is anything queer about Miss Villars, except that
she is a very religious woman.'

'Is that queer?' questioned Clare, a little wistfully.

'No,' Agatha said very quietly; 'it ought not to be.'

'But it is in the sight of the world,' retorted Captain Knox; 'that is,
if your religion in an aggressive one.'

'Well, of course it ought not to be aggressive,' said Gwen briskly.
'Religion is a matter to be lived, not talked about. It only concerns
oneself, and no one else.'

'That is a very selfish creed,' said Agatha. 'If you possess something
good, you ought to wish to pass it on.'

'But not to thrust it on people who don't want it. I am thirsty, and
like a glass of water, but need I insist upon your drinking it, when
you are not thirsty at all?'

'Gwen loves an argument,' said Captain Knox good-naturedly.

'I am not good at arguing,' said Agatha, 'only, knowing that thirst can
be a blessing, I think we should try to make people thirsty.'

'How do you mean?' asked Clare with interest, 'thirst is not,
generally, a very happy experience.'

'Doesn't it say, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled"?'

'Oh, come, Agatha, we don't want a sermon with our dinner. You are not
given to preach, so don't be trying to show us that you know how to be
aggressive.'

Gwen's tone was a little scornful, and Agatha said no more; but as
Clare was pacing up and down in the verandah with Captain Knox, a
little time after, she suddenly said, 'I think I am a thirsty person,
Hugh, only I never can tell what it is I am thirsting for; tell me, are
you perfectly satisfied with yourself and with life?'

Captain Knox looked down at the sweet, pensive face of his betrothed.