was very awful--considering myself as hostess." Poor girl, it was a
series of misfortunes. "The dinner was three-quarters of an hour
late, the fish done to rags." She had hired three dozen wine-glasses
to be sure of enough, but they were "brought in in twos and threes at
a time and then a hiatus as if they were being washed which they were
not."

In the letters from parents and older relatives religious observances
are taken for granted and there is an obvious sincerity in the many
allusions to God's will and God's guidance of human life. No one
reading them could doubt that the description of a dying relative as
"ready for the summons" and to "going home" is a sincere one. Other
letters, notably Harriette's, do not lack a spice of malice in
speaking of those whose religion was unreal and affected--a
phenomenon that only appears in an age when real religion abounds.

Doubtless her generation was beginning to see Christianity with less
than the simplicity of their parents. They were hearing of Darwin and
Spencer, and the optimism which accompanied the idea of evolution was
turning religion into a vague glow which would, they felt, survive
the somewhat childish dogmas in which our rude ancestors had tried to
formulate it. But with an increased vagueness went also, with the
more liberal--and the Chestertons were essentially liberal both
politically and theologically--an increased tolerance. In several of
his letters, Edward Chesterton mentions the Catholic Church, and
certainly with no dislike. He went on one occasion to hear Manning
preach and much admired the sermon, although he notes too that he
found in it "no distinctively Roman Catholic doctrine." He belonged,
however, to an age that on the whole found the rest of life more
exciting and interesting than religion, an age that had kept the