ll, and wanted somebody to play with, and he was better
than nobody), he made these sops the principal articles of his heart's
diet, and cared for no other fare.

"What is Mr. Herbert like?" he inquired.

"Oh! he is a good man in his way, but a back-boneless, sweet-syrupy kind
of a Christian; one of the sort that seems to regard the Almighty as a
blindly indulgent and easily-hoodwinked Father, and Satan himself as
nothing worse than a rather crusty old bachelor uncle. You know the
type."

"Perfectly; they always drawl, and use the adjective 'dear' in and out
of season. I quite think that among themselves they talk of 'the dear
devil.' And yet 'dear' is really quite a nice word, if only people like
that hadn't spoiled it."

"You shouldn't let people spoil things for you in that way. That is one
of your greatest faults, Christopher; whenever you have seen a funny
side to anything you never see any other. You have too much humour and
too little tenderness; that's what's the matter with you."

"Permit me to tender you a sincere vote of thanks for your exhaustive
and gratuitous spiritual diagnosis. To cure my faults is my duty--to
discover them, your delight."

"Well, I'm right; and you'll find it out some day, although you make fun
of me now."

"I say, how will Mrs. Herbert fit in Tremaine's religious views--or
rather absence of religious views--with her code of the next world's
etiquette?" asked Christopher, wisely changing the subject.

"Oh! she'll simply decline to see them. Although, as I told you, she is
driven about entirely by her conscience, it is a well-harnessed
conscience and always wears blinkers. It shies a good deal at gnats, I
own; but it can run in double-harness with a camel, if worldly
considerations render such a course desirable. It is like a horse we
once had, which always shied violently at every puddle, but went past a
steamroller without turning a hair."

"'By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so
shrewd of thy tongue,'" quoted Christopher.

"I don't want to be too severe, but Mrs. Herbert does make me so mad.
When people put religious things in a horrid light, it makes you feel as
if they were telling unkind and untrue tales about your dearest
friends."

"What does the good woman say that makes 'my lady Tongue' so furious?"

"Well, she is always saying one must give up this and give up that, and
deny one's self here and deny one's self there, for the sake o