icate from father to prove it is genuine, if they don't
believe it."

Then she gave her full attention to tucking up tiny, straying curls
with invisible hair pins, and was quite startled when David called
suddenly:

"Hurry up, Carol, I am waiting for you."

"Oh, bless its heart, I forgot all about it. I am coming."

Gaily she ran down the stairs, parted the curtains into the living-room
and said:

"Why are you sitting in the dark, David? Headache, or just plain
sentimental? Where are you?"

"Over here," he said, in a curious, quiet voice.

She groped her way into the center of the room and clutched his arms.
"David," she said, laughing a little nervously, "here goes the last
gasp of my dear old Methodist fervor."

"Why, Carol--" he interrupted.

"Just a minute, honey. After this I am going to be settled and solemn
and when I feel perfectly glorious I'll just say, 'Very good, thank
you,' and--"

"But, Carol--"

"Yes, dear, just a second. This is my final gasp, my last explosion,
my dying outburst. Rah, rah, rah, David. Three cheers and a tiger.
Amen! Hallelujah! Hurrah! Down with the traitor, up with the stars!
Now it's all over. I am a Presbyterian."

David's burst of laughter was echoed on every side of the room and the
lights were switched on, and with a sickening weakness Carol faced the
young people of her husband's church.

"More Presbyterians, dear, a whole houseful of them. They wanted to
surprise you, but you have turned the tables on them. This is my wife,
Mrs. Duke."

Slowly Carol rallied. She smiled the irresistible smile.

"I am so glad to meet you," she said, softly, "I know we are going to
like each other. Aren't you glad you got here in time to see me become
Presbyterian? David, why didn't you warn me that surprise parties were
still stylish? I thought they had gone out."

Carol watched very, very closely all that evening, and she could not
see one particle of difference between these mansers and the young
folks in the Methodist Church in Mount Mark, Iowa. They told funny
stories, and laughed immoderately at them. The young men gave the
latest demonstrations of vaudeville trickery, and the girls applauded
as warmly as if they had not seen the same bits performed in the
original. They asked David if they might dance in the kitchen, and
David smilingly begged them to spare his manse the disgrace, and to
dance themselves home if they couldn't be more restrained. The