summer months." Simple sense and perfect sincerity were written on every
line of Mrs. Brown's motherly face.

"He really is very good," said one of the daughters. "Do you know, Miss
Rexford, we have a friend who has a son at the college. He really went
to the college a _very_ naughty boy, no one could manage him; and he's
so changed--such a nice fellow, and doing so well. His mother says she
could thank Principal Trenholme on her knees, if it was only the
conventional thing to do."

"He is a most devoted Christian," added Mrs. Brown, using the religious
terms to which she was accustomed, "and I believe he makes it a matter
of prayer that no young man should leave his college without deepened
religious life. I believe in prayer as a power; don't you, Miss
Rexford?"

"Yes," replied Sophia, tersely. She did not feel at that moment as if
she wanted to discuss the point.

"And then he's so jolly," put in the youngest Miss Brown, who was a
hearty girl. "That's the sort of religion for me, the kind that can
rollick--of course I mean _out of church_," she added naïvely.

Blue and Red sat shyly upon their chairs and listened to this discourse.
It might have been Greek for all the interest they took in it.

As for Sophia, it could not be said to lack interest for her--it was
very plain, she thought, why Robert Trenholme thought so highly of the
Browns.