"How can such a brute have such a daughter?" he said. "Never mind,
Cugina, you were a little brick, and treated him much better than he
deserved. If that is a Christian, and this a Latitudinarian and all the
other heresies he threw at your head, all I can say is, commend me to
your sort, and may I never have the misfortune to encounter another of
his!"

Erica did not reply; she felt too sick at heart. She walked slowly
upstairs, trying to stifle the weary longing for Brian which, though
very often present, became a degree less bearable when her isolated
position between two fires, as it were had been specially emphasized.

"That's a nice specimen of Christian charity!" said Aunt Jean as they
returned to the green room.

"And he set upon Erica at the door and hurled hard names at her as fast
as he could go," said Tom, proceeding to give a detailed account of Mr.
Fane-Smith's parting utterances.

Erica picked up Tottie and held him closely, turning, as all lovers of
animals do in times of trouble, to the comforting devotion of those dumb
friends who do not season their love with curiosity or unasked advice,
or that pity which is less sympathetic than silence, and burdens us
with the feeling that our sad "case" will be gossiped over in the same
pitying tones at afternoon teas and morning calls. Tottie could not
gossip, but he could talk to her with his bright brown eyes, and do
something to fill a great blank in her life.

Tom's account of the scene in the hall made every one angry.

"And yet," said Mrs. MacNaughton, "these Christians, who used to us such
language as this, own as their Master one who taught that a mere angry
word which wounded a neighbor should receive severe punishment!"

Raeburn said nothing, only watched Erica keenly. She was leaning against
the mantel piece, her eyes very sad-looking, and about her face that
expression of earnest listening which is characteristic of those who
are beginning to learn the true meaning of humility and "righteous
judgment." She had pushed back the thick waves of hair which usually
overshadowed her forehead, and looked something between a lion with a
tangled mane and a saint with a halo.

"Never mind," said the professor, cheerfully, "it is to bigotry like
this that we shall owe our recovery of Erica. And seriously, what can
you think of a religion which can make a man behave like this to one who
had never injured him, who, on the contrary, had befriended his child