carriage," he remarked,
with a light laugh.

"Mr. McGowan, you must not talk like that. I know you don't like him,
but he is really the best father in all the world!"

"Forgive me, Miss Fox. I didn't mean to be rude. I'm afraid I was just
trying to be funny. As a matter of fact, I do like your father, but
there has been no opportunity----"

"Have you tried very hard to find an opportunity? You've stayed away
from our house pretty consistently, and have not asked him one thing
about the church work."

"I stayed away because I was requested to."

"That was only for the time he was ill."

"I'd be glad----"

"Why will you grown men act like children sometimes?"

"Miss Fox, please be seated again," requested the minister, a note of
authority in his voice. "I have something important to say to you, and
the time may not come again."

The girl obeyed, taking her place close beside him on the stone.

"I see you do not understand what has brought this trouble between your
father and me. Neither do I, but I don't think that it's a matter of
doctrine. Nor do I believe that it's the work I've been doing down at
the Inn with the boys. Some cause strikes deeper than both. They are
merely excuses. You remember that he made no objection to me in the
beginning along these lines, and I preached no less strenuously then, as
you call it, than I do now. In fact, had it not been for your father I
doubt very much if the installation had gone through last summer. Behind
the scenes there is another man, and he is pulling the strings while he
directs the play. When I was ordained to the ministry in the New York
Presbytery, that man fought me desperately, while he raised no
objections to others who were ordained at the same time, and who held
views far more radical than mine. That man was at the installation.
When your father told me that he was coming, I made no protest, for I
saw that there was a fast friendship between the two. You know what that
man tried to do at the installation. You doubtless know, too, that he
has been much with your father of late. You also saw him at the meeting
last night.

"Miss Fox, if we knew all the facts, we should be able to lay the blame
for this trouble and your father's condition right where it belongs."

"You refer to Mr. Means?"

"I do. What it is----"

"Mr. McGowan, if you think any man can influence my father, you do not
know him. I dislike Mr. Means, maybe because he is so preachy. But h