Miss Lily arched her handsome eyebrows.

"Oh, mamma!" she said, "how could you be guilty of such a sin! The
_idea_ of Dr. Selmser going out to dinner on Sunday! I wonder he did
not drop down in a faint! Papa, did you ever hear such a sermon?"

"It slashed right and left, that is a fact," said Mr. Harrison,
between the mouthfuls of chicken salad and oyster pickle.

"A little too sweeping in its scope to be wise for one in his
position. Have another piece of the turkey, James? He is running into
that style a little too much. Some person whose opinion has weight
ought to warn him. A minister loses influence pretty rapidly who
meddles with everything."

"Well, there was _everything_ in that sermon," said Miss Cecilia. "I
just trembled in my shoes at one time. I expected our last escapade
in the school hall would be produced to point one of his morals."

"You admit that it would have pointed it?" said the cousin Jim, with
a meaning laugh.

"Oh, yes; it was _awfully_ wicked; I'll admit that. But one didn't
care to hear it rehearsed in a church."

"That is the trouble," mamma Harrison said. "Little nonsenses that do
very well among schoolgirls, or in the way of a frolic, are not
suited to illustrate a sermon with. I think Dr. Selmser is rather apt
to forget the dignity of the pulpit in his illustrations."