y that Carmen could scarcely
refrain from laughing. "H'm! quite so. Ah--suppose you relate to me
some of the tests to which your views have been subjected."

"No," she returned firmly; "those experiences were only states of
consciousness, which are now past and gone forever. Why rehearse them?
They were human, and so, unreal. Why go back now and give them the
appearance of reality?"

"Unreal! H'm--then you do not regard untoward experience as given us
by God for the testing of our faith, I take it."

Carmen turned her head away with a little sigh of weariness. "I
think," she said slowly, "I think we had better not talk about these
things, Doctor. You are a preacher. Your views are not mine."

"Why--ah," blustered the clergyman, assuming a more paternal air,
"we--ah--would not for a moment cause you embarrassment, Miss Carmen!
But--in fact, Madam Elwin has--ah--expressed her disapproval of your
views--your religious ideals, if I may put it so baldly, and she--that
is--the good lady regrets--"

"She wishes to be rid of me, you mean, Doctor?" said the girl,
turning and stretching a mental hand to the sinking divine.

"H'm! well, hardly so--ah--so--"

"Doctor," said the girl calmly, "I know it, and I wish to go. I have
been waiting only to see the way open. I do not wish to remain longer
in an atmosphere where ignorance and false belief stifle all real
progress."

The doctor turned another look of astonishment upon her. He had
forgotten that he had not been talking with one of his own age. The
fact suddenly pressed upon him. "How old are you?" he blurted.

Carmen could not help laughing. But if her clear mental gaze
penetrated the ecclesiastical mask and surmounted the theological
assumptions of her interlocutor, enabling her to get close to the
heart of the man, she did not indicate it further. "I am nearly
sixteen," was her only reply.

"Ah," he reflected, "just a child! My dear girl," he continued, laying
a hand indulgently upon hers, "I will advise with Madam Elwin, and
will endeavor to convince her that--ah--that your spiritual welfare,
if I may so put it, requires that you be not turned adrift at this
critical, transitorial period of your life. We must all be patient,
while we strive to counteract the--ah--the pernicious teaching to
which you were exposed before--ah--before becoming enrolled in this
excellent school."

Carmen looked at him steadily for a moment before replying. There was
something of pi