!
The idea of that man being in love! It pulls him down a bit. I thought
he never looked at a woman."

"Do you know him, father?"

"As many people know him--by good report. I know that he is a clergyman
who believes what he preaches. I know a Wall Street broker who left St.
Jude's church because Mr. Stanhope's sermons on Sunday put such a fine
edge on his conscience that Mondays were dangerous days for him to do
business on. And whatever Wall Street financiers think of the Bible
personally, they do like a man who sticks to his colors, and who holds
intact the truth committed to him. Stanhope does this emphatically; and
he is so well trusted that if he wanted to build a new church he could
get all the money necessary, from Wall Street men in an hour. And he is
going to marry! Going to marry Dora Denning! It is 'extraordinary news,'
indeed!"

Ethel was a little offended at such unusual surprise. "I think you don't
quite understand Dora," she said. "It will be Mr. Stanhope's fault
if she is not led in the right way; for if he only loves and pets her
enough he may do all he wishes with her. I know, I have both coaxed and
ordered her for four years--sometimes one way is best, and sometimes the
other."

"How is a man to tell which way to take? What do her parents think of
the marriage?"

"They are pleased with it."

"Pleased with it! Then I have nothing more to say, except that I hope
they will not appeal to me on any question of divorce that may arise
from such an unlikely marriage."

"They are only lovers yet, Edward," said Ruth. "It is not fair, or kind,
to even think of divorce."

"My dear Ruth, the fashionable girl of today accepts marriage with the
provision of divorce."

"Dora is hardly one of that set."

"I hope she may keep out of it, but marriage will give her many
opportunities. Well, I am sorry for the young priest. He isn't fit to
manage a woman like Dora Denning. I am afraid he will get the worst of
it."

"I think you are very unkind, father. Dora is my friend, and I know her.
She is a girl of intense feelings and very affectionate. And she has
dissolved all her life and mind in Mr. Stanhope's life and mind, just as
a lump of sugar is dissolved in water."

Ruth laughed. "Can you not find a more poetic simile, Ethel?"

"It will do. This is an age of matter; a material symbol is the proper
thing."

"I am glad to hear she has dissolved her mind in Stanhope's," said Judge
Rawdon. "Dora's intelle