fter that, Betsey and I went to a party at Deacon
Benson's. The Deacon is Marie's grandfather--a strict, old-line
Congregationalist. The old gentleman owned some two hundred acres in
the very heart of Pointview and about a mile of shore-front. In all
the buying and selling, he had refused to part with an acre of his
land, now worth at least a million dollars. He had willed it all to
Marie.

"Deacon Joe was a relic of Puritan days, with shrewd eyes under heavy
gray tufts, and a mouth bent like a sickle, and whiskers under a
strong chin, and lines in his face that suggested the heart of a lion.
In his walks he was always accompanied by a hickory cane and a bulldog
whose countenance and philosophy were like unto those of the Deacon.

"He was a perfectly honest man who had joined the church with mental
reservations. He had reserved the right to employ certain adjectives
and nouns which had been useful in Pointview since the days of the
pioneer, and which had grown more and more indispensable to the
opinions of an honest man. The verb 'to damn' in all its parts and
relations had been one of them. The word 'hell' was another. It
represented a thing of great conversational value, and he recommended
it with perfect frankness to certain people. He loved hell and hard
cider, and hated Episcopalians. He loved to tell how one Episcopalian
had cheated him in a horse trade, and how another had never paid for a
bushel of onions. That was enough for him. He had always thought them
a loose, unprincipled lot with no adequate respect for fire and
brimstone. But Deacon Joe was honest, and his word was worth a hundred
cents on the dollar.

"Now the Delances were Episcopalians from away back--High-Church
Episcopalians, at that. The old man had sniffed a good deal when Harry
began to pay attention to Marie, and had come to see me about it.

"I eased his fears and appealed to his avarice. Harry had too much
money and some follies, I confessed, but he was sound at heart, and I
had hope of making a strong man of him, and of course his money might
be a great lever in his hands.

"'Very well--we'll keep an eye on him,' he snapped, and left me
without another word.

"After that Marie was allowed to go out with the young man in his drag
and tandem.

"Harry and his sister came to the party at Deacon Joe's, and brought
with them a late volume of D'Annunzio for Marie to read. Harry wished
to know if I had read it, and gave us a talk on the rea