of my stewardship I must render to my poor dead Marcia. The more I
see of your lover, the more I dread your marriage. A man who makes
no profession of religious belief, is an unsafe guardian of any
woman's peace of mind. You who have been reared almost in the shadow
of the altar, accustomed to hearing grace at your meals, to family
prayers, to strict observance of our ritual, will feel isolated
indeed, when transplanted to the home of a godless man, who rarely
darkens the door of the sanctuary. 'Be ye not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers.'"

Miss Patty Dent took off her spectacles, wiped them with the string
of her white muslin cap, and adjusting them firmly on her nose,
plucked nervously at the fluted lace ruffles around her wrists.

"Auntie, you are scarcely warranted in using such strong language.
Because a man refrains from the public avowal of faith, incident to
church membership, he is not necessarily godless; nor inevitably
devoid of true religious feeling. Mr. Dunbar has a strong, reticent
nature, habituated to repression of all evidences of emotion, but of
the depth and earnestness of his real feeling, I entertain no
doubt."

"I fear your line and plummet will never sound his depth. You often
speak of his strength; but, Leo, hardness is not always strength;
and he is hard, hard. I never saw a man with a chin like his, who
was not tyrannical, and idolatrous of his own will. My dear, such
men are as uncomfortable to live in the same house with, as a smoky
chimney, or a woman with shattered nerves, or creaking doors, or
draughty windows. They are a sort of everlasting east wind that
never veers, blowing always to the one point, attainment of their