"Bessy!" in a horror-stricken tone.

He strove to put her from him, but she clung the more tightly.

"Bessy! woman! To do such an unlawful thing!"

"It is not unlawful to give a Christian name."

"A vain, trifling, heathenish name!" he interrupted fiercely. "I will
have none of it! I will----"

"God made a Primrose and many another beautiful thing in this world of
His. He has even given me a prettiness that plain Quaker garb cannot
wholly disguise. Suppose I scarred my face and deformed my body, would
my praise be any more acceptable to Him? And people do not all think
alike. They look at religion in divers ways, and so they who deal
justly and are kind to the poor and outcast, and keep the Commandments
are, I think, true Christians in any garb. And her name is writ in the
Church books, her legal, lawful name that only the law can change. And
see, husband, thou shalt call thy son whatever pleaseth thee. But the
little daughter is mine own."

"She is my child as well. And to go through all this mummery that we
believe not in, that we have come to this new country to escape! It is
wicked, sinful!"

"And some consider that discarding all forms and sacraments is sinful. I
am sure God ordained many for the Jews, his chosen race!"

"Which they could not keep, which were of no importance to real
salvation. Then Christ came and all was abrogated."

"Nay, He added to the Commandments the one tenderer rule--thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself."

"Woman, thou art full of excusing subtleties. Thou art no true Friend,
methinks. Is there any real conviction under thy plain garb, or was it
only put on for----"

"For love of thee," she interrupted with brave sweetness shining in her
appealing eyes. "I was in Christ's household before I knew thee. I
worshiped God and prayed to Him and gave thanks. He hath not made the
world all alike, one tree differeth from another, and the lowly Primrose
groweth where other flowers might not find sustenance, but God careth
for them all, and gives to each its need and its exquisite coloring. So
he will care for the child, never fear."

"But I am very angry at thy disobedience."

"Nay, it was not that," and a glimmering light like a smile crossed her
sweet face. "I did not ask and thou didst not deny."

"Sophistry again. Thou art still in the bonds of iniquity."

"And thou must forgive seventy times seven. Thou must do good to those
that despitefully use thee. If thou art so much