fferent from
what they had expected. They could not place her; and, in Bainbridge,
everyone is placed.

"I understood," said Mrs. T. L. Lawson, whose word in intellectual
matters was final, "that young Mrs. Spence was wholly uneducated. A
school teacher who met her on the train told my dressmaker that she had
heard her admit the fact with her own lips. So, naturally, not wishing
to embarrass a newcomer, I confined my remarks to the simplest matters.
She did not say very much but I must confess--you will scarcely believe
it--I actually got the impression that she was accommodating her
conversation to me."

"Oh, surely not!" from a shocked chorus.

"It is just a manner she affects," comforted Mrs. Burton Holmes. "Far,
far too assured, in my opinion, for a young bride. I hope it does not
denote a certain lack of fine feeling. In a girl who had been brought
up to an assured social position, such a manner might be understood.
But--well, all I can say is that I heard from my friend Marion Walford
yesterday, and she assured me that Mrs. Spence is quite unknown in
Vancouver society. But, of course, dear Marion knows only the very
smartest people. For myself I do not allow these distinctions to affect
me. If only for dear Miss Campion's sake I determined to be perfectly
friendly. But I felt that, in justice to everybody, it might be well
for her to know that we know. So I asked her, casually, if she were
well acquainted with the Walfords. At first she looked as if she had
never heard of them, and then--'Oh, do you mean the soap people?' she
said. 'I don't know them--but one sees their bill-boards everywhere.'
It was almost as if--"

"Oh--absurd!" echoed the chorus. "Though if she is really English,"
ventured one of them, "she might, you know. The English have such a
horror of trade."

These social and educational puzzles were as nothing to the religious
problem. Bainbridge, who had seen Desire more or less regularly at
church, had taken for granted that in this respect, at least, she was
even as they were. But, after the reception, Mrs. Pennington thought
not.

"I felt quite worried about our pretty bride," said Mrs. Pennington.
"You know how we all hoped that when the dear professor married he
would become more orthodox. Science is so unsettling. And married men
so often do. But--" she sighed.

"Surely not a free thinker?" ventured one in a subdued whisper.

"Or a Christian Scientist?" with equal horror.

Mrs. Penn