As certainly as thousands know that a structure called the Brooklyn Bridge exists, so upon testimony of the same validity do we know that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed on him might not perish but have everlasting life." God has not expected us to trust blindly: he has presented tangible and compelling evidence of his glorious scheme of salvation.' The speaker, who is always imbued with the magnetism of a striking personality, was more than usually effective on this occasion, and visibly moved the throng of fashionable worshippers that--" "Allan, you outdid yourself!" Aunt Bell had come in and, in the mirror over the dining-room mantel, was bestowing glances of unaffected but strictly impartial admiration upon the bonnet of lilac blossoms that rested above the lustrous puffs of her plenteous gray hair.
The young man looked up from his meditative pacing of the room.
"Aunt Bell, I think I may say that I pleased myself this morning--and you know that's not easy for me." "It's too bad Nance wasn't there!" "Nancy is not pleasing me," began her husband, in gentle tones.
"I didn't feel equal to it, Allan," his wife called from the library.
"Oh, you're there! My dear, you give up too easily to little indispositions that another woman would make nothing of.

I've repeated that to you so often that, really, your further ignoring it appears dangerously like perverseness--" "Is she crying ?" he asked Aunt Bell, as they both listened.
"Laughing!" replied that lady.
"My dear, may I ask if you are laughing at me ?" "Dear, no!--only at something I happened to think of." She came into the dining-room, a morning paper in her hand.

"Besides, in to-morrow's paper I shall read all about what the handsome rector of St.Antipas said, in his handsome voice, to his handsome hearers--" He had frowned at first, but now smiled indulgently, as they sat down to luncheon.

"You _will_ have your joke about my appearance, Nance! That reminds me--that poor romantic little Mrs.Eversley--sister of Mrs.
Wyeth, you know--said to me after service this morning, 'Oh, Dr.
Linford, if I could only believe in Christian dogma as I believe in _you_ as a man!' You know, she's such a painfully emotional, impulsive creature, and then Colonel Godwin who stood by had to have _his_ joke: 'The symbol will serve you for worship, Madam!' he says; 'I'm sure no woman's soul would ever be lost if all clergymen were as good to look upon as our friend here!' Those things always make me feel so awkward--they are said so bluntly--but what could I do ?" "Mr.Browett's sister and her son were out with him this morning," began Aunt Bell, charitably entering another channel of conversation from the intuition that her niece was wincing.

But, as not infrequently happened, the seeming outlet merely gave again into the main channel.
"And there's Browett," continued the Doctor.