Elisabeth's peculiarities that she
invariably did the thing which she had definitely made up her mind not
to do.

After dinner the party broke up and wandered about, in small
detachments, over the park and through the woods and by the mere, until
it was tea-time. Alan spent most of his afternoon in explaining to
Elisabeth the more excellent ways whereby the poor may be enabled to
share the pleasures of the rich; and Christopher spent most of his in
carrying Johnnie Stubbs to the mere and taking him for a row, and so
helping the crippled youth to forget for a short time that he was not as
other men are, and that it was out of pity that he, who never worked,
had been permitted to take the holiday which he could not earn.

After tea Alan and Elisabeth were standing on the steps leading from the
saloon to the garden.

"What a magnificent fellow that is!" exclaimed Alan, pointing to the
huge figure of Caleb Bateson, who was talking to Jemima Stubbs on the
far side of the lawn. Caleb certainly justified this admiration, for he
was a fine specimen of a Mershire puddler--and there is no finer race of
men to be found anywhere than the puddlers of Mershire.

Elisabeth's eyes twinkled. "That is one of your anaemic and neurotic
Christians," she remarked demurely.

Displeasure settled on Alan's brow; he greatly objected to Elisabeth's
habit of making fun of things, and had tried his best to cure her of it.
To a great extent he had succeeded (for the time being); but even yet
the cloven foot of Elisabeth's levity now and then showed itself, much
to his regret.

"Exceptions do not disprove rules," he replied coldly. "Moreover,
Bateson is probably religious rather from the force of convention than
of conviction." Tremaine never failed to enjoy his own rounded
sentences, and this one pleased him so much that it almost succeeded in
dispelling the cloud which Elisabeth's ill-timed gibe had created.

"He is a class-leader and a local preacher," she added.

"Those terms convey no meaning to my mind."

"Don't they? Well, they mean that Caleb not only loyally supports the
government of Providence, but is prepared to take office under it,"
Elisabeth explained.

Alan never quarrelled with people; he always reproved them. "You make a
great mistake--and an extremely feminine one--Miss Farringdon, in
invariably deducting general rules from individual instances. Believe
me, this is a most illogical form of reasoning, and leads to errone