Still, she found the frequentation of churches soothing and gave much and often to the mildly beseeching Little Sisters of the Poor when they made their rounds in town or suburbs.
[Footnote 1: Or so the observers say who haven't had a life of pleasure.] "What do you think about Religion, Viv old girl ?" she said one day in the Eastertide of 1912, when Vivie was spending a delicious fortnight at Villa Beau-sejour.
"Personally," said Vivie, "I hate all religions, so far as I have had time to study them.

They bind up with undisputed ethics more or less preposterous theories concerning life and death, the properties of matter, man, God, the universe, the laws of nature, the food we should eat, the relations of the sexes, the quality of the weekly day of rest.

Gradually they push indisputable ethics on one side and are ready to apply torture, death, or social ostracism to the support of these preposterous theories and explanations of God and Man.

Such theories"-- went on Vivie, though her mother's attention had wandered to some escaped poultry that were scratching disastrously in seed beds--"Such theories and explanations, mark you--_do_ listen, mother, since you asked the question..." "I'm listenin', dearie, but you talk like a book and I don't know what some of your words mean--What's ethics ?" "Well 'ethics' means er--er--'morality'; it comes from a Greek word meaning 'character.'..." _Mrs.Warren_: "You talk like a book--" _Vivie_: "I do sometimes, when I remember something I've read.

But now I've lost my thread....