She announced her creed so coolly and decidedly that Dennis lifted a
startled face to hers. She saw his grieved, astonished expression, and
it amused her very much. Henceforth she spoke as much for his benefit
as for theirs.

"If you would be equally honest," she continued, "you would find that
your creeds also are very different from the one in the prayer-book."

"And what would mine be, pray," asked one of the colorless young ladies.

"I will sum it up in one sentence, Miss Jones--'Keep in the fashion.'"

"I think that you are very unjust. I'm sure I go to church regularly,
and attend a great many services in Lent and on Saints' days. I've
been confirmed, and all that."

"Yes, it is the thing to do in your set. Now, here is Miss Winthrop,
a Presbyterian, who manifests quite another religious phase."

"Pray what is mine?" asked that lady, laughing.

"Oh, you want hair-splitting in regard to the high doctrines--clear,
brilliant arguments, cutting like sharp, merciless steel into the
beliefs of other denominations. Then, after your ism has been glorified
for an hour on Sunday morning, and all other isms pierced and lashed,
you descend from your intellectual heights, eat a good dinner, take
a nap, and live like the rest of us till the next Sabbath, when (if
it is a fine day) you climb some other theological peak, far beyond
the limits of perpetual snow, and there take another bird's-eye view
of something that might be found very different if you were nearer to