Ladies,
good afternoon!" He made a fleering motion of the hand and was gone.
Mrs. Haile and Miss Hopkins smiled indulgently. Evidently, Doctor
Geddes was one brother they were willing to forgive though he
offended them until seventy times seven.
Alicia and Miss Martha Hopkins walked down the garden path together
and Mrs. Haile fell into step with me. In a low voice she thanked
me, hurriedly, for having dropped that dreadful suit. And were
we--she hesitated--were we going to be regular communicants?
I didn't want to go to St. Polycarp's any more, and it was on the
tip of my tongue to give a politely evasive reply, when our eyes met
and held each other. I saw the naked truth in hers--the pitiful
truth of the slim, poor, aristocratic little parish; the old church
overtaken and surpassed by its more modern and middle-class rivals;
and the minister's family struggling along on a salary that would
have made a hod-carrier strike. She was neatly dressed; she looked
like a gentle-woman, but one in straightened circumstances. I made a
rapid mental calculation.
"Why, yes, I think I can say we shall. Now, Mrs. Haile, I am a
business woman, and if I speak bluntly you must pardon it.
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