you know, calls them 'vipers,' which of course was a crude and cruel way
of stating the truth, that they are sinners. Yet, through the infinite
mercy, they are saved because Christ died, not of themselves; in other
words, all infants who die, are elect."

Mrs. Grier shook her head. "I'm for holding to the catechism," she said;
and then, with a sharp, thin laugh, she added, "But you're sound on the
heathen, I must say."

Helen shivered, and it did not escape her hostess, who turned and looked
at her with interested curiosity. She, too, had heard the Lockhaven
rumors.

"But then," she proceeded, "I don't see how a parson can help being sound
on that, though it is surprising what people will doubt, even the things
that are plainest to other people. I've many a time heard my father say
that the proper holding of the doctrine of reprobation was necessary to
eternal life. I suppose you believe that, Mr. Ward," she added, with a
little toss of her head, "even if you don't go all the way with the
confession, about infants?"

"Yes," John said sadly, "I must; because not to believe in reprobation is
to say that the sacrifice of the cross was a useless offering."

"And of course," Mrs. Grier went on, an edge of sarcasm cutting into her
voice, "Mrs. Ward thinks so, too? Of course she thinks that a belief in
hell is necessary to get to heaven?"

The preacher looked at his wife with a growing anxiety in his face.

"No," Helen said, "I do not think so, Mrs. Grier."

Mrs. Grier flung up her little thin hands, which looked like bird-claws.
"You _don't_!" she cried shrilly. "Well, now, I do say! And what do you
think about the heathen, then? Do you think they'll be damned?"

"No," Helen said again.

Mrs. Grier gave a gurgle of astonishment, and looked at Mr. Ward, but he
did not speak.

"Well," she exclaimed, "if I didn't think the heathen would be lost, I
wouldn't see the use of the plan of salvation! Why, they've got to be!"

"If they had to be," cried Helen, with sudden passion, "I should want to
be a heathen. I should be ashamed to be saved, if there were so many
lost." She stopped; the anguish in John's face silenced her.

"Well," Mrs. Grier said again, really enjoying the scene, "_I'm_
surprised; I wouldn't a' believed it!"

She folded her hands across her waist, and looked at Mrs. Ward with keen
interest. Helen's face flushed under the contemptuous curiosity in the
woman's eyes; she turned appealingly to John.

"