All I can say is, the Catholics don't mind! They walk in and out of their own churches all the time mass is going on--the children run about--the sacristans take you round.

You certainly needn't feel it on their account.' 'But then, too, if I am not a Catholic--how far ought one to be taking part--in--in what--' 'In what one disapproves ?' said Mrs.Burgoyne, smiling.

'You would make the world a little difficult, wouldn't you, if you were to arrange it on that principle ?' She spoke in a dry, rather sharp voice, unlike that in which she had hitherto addressed the new-comer.

Lucy Foster looked at her with a shrinking perplexity.
'It's best if we're all straightforward, isn't it ?'--she said in a low voice, and then, drawing towards her an illustrated magazine that lay on the table near her she hurriedly buried herself in its pages.
* * * * * Silence had fallen on the three ladies.

Eleanor Burgoyne sat lost in reverie, her fair head thrown back against her low chair.
She was thinking of her conversation with Edward Manisty on the balcony--and of his book.