ation. The newsmonger of our town had been to
see us, had spent the afternoon and taken tea, and while it was
amusement for me to hear her gossip incessantly about this thing and
that, this person and the other, Clara was greatly annoyed by it. It
caused a righteous indignation to rise within her, and when after the
visit we were seated by the antique centre table in her sitting-room,
the conversation turned upon the peculiarities of this scandal-loving
Jane North.

Clara expressed herself freely on the subject of small talk, as she
termed scandal. Her eyes dilated, her small hands were folded tightly,
and when she closed it was with this last feeling sentence:

"I can only say, 'Father, forgive them, they know not what they do,' who
scatter the theme of contention where roses should appear, and in
tearing down the habitation of their neighbors lose also their own; for
they who have respect for themselves will have respect for their
neighbors. May we yet live to understand the meaning of the words, 'Love
ye one another.' When this shall be, oh, my more than friends, when this
shall be, we shall know each other, even as we are known! No secret
blight shall cover any life, no worm of regret gnaw at the tree of our
unfolding lives! We shall all be as a unit, and our Father who seeth us
in secret shall then reward us openly! Yea, more, for are not we
ourselves capable of holding communion with this part of God within us?
We know our souls are with us to-day, and it is only because the roots
of thought are covered, and the feet of envy, hatred and malice are
pressing, the hard soil against them, that the tendrils of our loving
natures are never asked to climb, and the eternal ivy of our great love
reaches not the windows of expressed thought, else our hands would be
made strong to do daily that which is found to do with all our might."

Her last beautiful utterance finished, she closed her eyes as if covered
with the mantle of her holy thoughts, and we all sat in a breathless
silence. Aunt Hildy who sat in the corner (by preference) stirred not a
muscle from the beginning to the close of her talk, and Mr. Benton
looked first in wonder then in admiration, and when our silence was
broken by a fervent "Amen" from Aunt Hildy, he added:

"'Even so let it be.' Those thoughts are beautiful."

Clara looked at him with an almost reproachful glance, the import of
which I could not understand.

I was not sensitive like Clara; per