tingly; then she turned toward
him suddenly, and let him see all the pain and trouble and regret that
her friendly headgear had been sheltering. "Oh, I _do_ wish you could
come to see things different!" she broke out tremulously.
The young man was quiet for an instant, and then said huskily, "I just
thought you had something like that in your mind, Marg'et Ann. If you've
concluded to wait till I join the church we might as well give it up. I
don't believe in close communion, and I can't see any harm in occasional
hearing, and I haven't heard any minister yet that can reconcile free
will and election; the more I think about it the less I believe; I think
there is about as much hope of your changing as there is of me. I don't
see what all this fuss is about, anyway. Arch Skinner isn't a church
member!"
It was hard for Marg'et Ann to say why Archie Skinner's case was
considered more hopeful than Lloyd's. She knew perfectly well, and so
did her lover, for that matter, but it was not easy to formulate.
"Ain't you afraid you'll get to believing less and less if you go on
arguing, Lloyd?" she asked, ignoring Archie Skinner altogether.
"I don't know," said Lloyd somewhat sullenly.
They were riding up the lane in the scant shadow of the white locust
trees. The corn was in tassel now, and rustled softly in the fields on
either side. There was no other sound for a while. Then Marg'et Ann
spoke.
"I'll see what father thinks"--
"No, you won't, Marg'et Ann," broke in Lloyd obstinately. "I think a
good deal of your father, but I don't want to marry him; and I don't ask
you to promise to marry the fellow I ought to be, or that you think I
ought to be; I've asked you to marry _me_. I don't care what you believe
and I don't care what your father thinks; I want to know what _you_
think."
Poor Lloyd made all this energetic avowal without the encouragement of a
blush or a smile, or the discouragement of a frown or a tear. All this
that a lover watches for anxiously was hidden by a wall of slats and
green-checked gingham.
She turned her tubular head covering toward him presently, however,
showing him all the troubled pink prettiness it held, and said very
genuinely through her tears,--
"Oh, Lloyd, you know well enough what I think!"
They had reached the gate, and it was a very much mollified face which
the young man raised to hers as he helped her to dismount.
"Your father and mother wouldn't stand in the way of ou
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