s against
their background of pink roses blushing in a terra-cotta field, and ran
drowsily over the little pile of accumulated mail.

With one exception he found a politician's budget, and the exception
brushed its fellows imperiously aside. It was a tinted intriguing
thing, faintly odorous of patchouli; its contents without date,
superscription, or signature, though for the reader the scent was Mrs.
Hilliard writ large; a single straggling line of characterless script.

"Why," it inquired, "have you forsaken me?"

The man yawned.

He awoke refreshed and lay in snug indolence listening to the rival
sextons pealing first bell for Sunday service. Whatever their
doctrinal disputes, the churches of New Babylon made a shift for
concord when it came to bell-ringing, whose stately performance was
regarded by no less a theological expert than the Widow Weatherwax as
"spiritoolly edifyin' and condoocive to grace." Drifting between
cat-naps Shelby usually found it a fillip to the fancy. He would
detect infant damnation and argument for sprinkling in the deep boom of
the Presbyterian bell, and instant dissent in the querulous note of the
Baptist, whose echo droned "i-m-m-e-r-s-i-o-n" to infinity. This was
the cue for a jaunty flaunting of apostolic succession on the part of
the Episcopalian sexton, only to be himself reminded by the First
Methodist that there were bishops and bishops. So on, assertion,
rejoinder, surrejoinder, and rebuttal, till the dispassionate
philosopher in the pillows wearied of his conceit and directed his
thoughts toward breakfast.

From breakfast Shelby ordinarily turned to the sporting columns of the
Sunday papers, but today he found his thoughts reverting to
church-going as a not unpleasant sedative after the storm and stress of
his campaign. Reasons multiplied: it would be a sop to the prejudices
of no small body of the voting population; an act of tolerance worthy
of a mind open to broad horizons; a lightning-rod for supernatural
approval of his cause; and a simple means of falling in with Ruth
Temple, since by a happy coincidence Ruth Temple and a large block of
the church-going vote worshipped under the same spire. Some little
time later, therefore, Shelby was ushered to a prominent seat in the
midst of a decorous flurry of excitement which stirred the Presbyterian
congregation from choir-loft to rearmost pew. Unknown to the visitor,
the Rev. Mr. Hewett was scheduled to preach on the e