ving all the time an unconscious
tribute to the truth and purity of the Christian faith?
It was a merry dinner, after all, eaten with steel forks and without
napkins, and with plated spoons, if you were so fortunate as to secure
one. The rush of people was very great, and, with their inconvenient
accommodations, the process of serving was slow.
Marion, her eyes being opened, went to studying the people about her.
She found that courteous good-humor was the rule, and selfishness and
ungraciousness the exception. Inconveniences were put up with and
merrily laughed over by people who, from their dress and manners, could
be accustomed to only the best.
Marion took mental notes.
"They do not act in the least like the mass of people who stop at
railroad eating-houses for their dinner; they are patient and courteous
under difficulties; they did not come here for the purpose of being
entertained; if they did the accommodations wouldn't satisfy."
There was another little thing that interested Marion. As the tables
kept filling, and those who had been served made room for those who had
not, she found herself watching curiously what proportion of the guests
observed that instant of silent thanks with covered eyes. It was so
brief, so slight a thing, I venture that scarcely a person there noticed
it, much less imagined that there was a pair of keen gray eyes over in
the corner looking and calculating concerning them.
"What if they all had to wear badges," she said to herself, "badges that
read 'I am a Christian,' I wonder how many of them it would influence
to different words than they are speaking, or to different acts? I
wonder if they _do_ all wear them? I wonder if the distinction is really
marked, so one looking on could detect the difference, though all of
them are strangers? I mean to watch during these two weeks. 'The proper
study of mankind is man.' Very well, Brother Pope, a convenient place
for the study of man is Chautauqua. I'll take it up. Who knows but I may
learn a new branch to teach the graded infants in Ward No. 4."
Ruth did not recover her equanimity. She was rasped on every side. Those
two-tined steel forks were a positive sting to her. She shuddered as the
steel touched her lips. She had no spoon at all, and she looked on in
utter disgust while Eurie merrily stirred her tea with her fork. When
the waiter came at last, with hearty apologies for keeping them waiting
for their spoons, and the old ge
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