(Theophil often used "we" in this imperatorial sense, meaning himself,
as of course he had every right to mean.)

"O yes, but I can," Isabel hastened to correct. "I understand power."

"Beauty always does," was the young minister's reply.

"Besides," he presently resumed, "we are glad to have been
Nonconformists--once. A Puritan training is a good thing--to look back
upon. You are all the more thorough in your pleasures, the truer
humanist, for something of it still lurking in your blood."

"Yes, of course you're right. I don't like the word 'pagan'; but for
want of a better, we might say that the best pagans have come of Puritan
stock. Besides, it is half the romance of life to have something to
escape from, isn't it?"

"And someone to escape with the other half," responded Theophil, nimble
as a real town wit.

O it was a wonderful night. Let us build five tabernacles!

"Good-night, dear Jenny."

"Good-night, dear wonderful Isabel."

So at last the two girls bade each other good-night at the door of
Jenny's bedroom, where Isabel was to sleep.

Masterful youth! So wild to take, so eager to surrender, the Christian