hy; they are certainly unlike enough. But I distrust them in
almost every way. I am sorry that you are at school, under Miss Wilbur's
influence; not that I dread her influence on you, except in a general
way."

At this point Grace opened her bright lips to speak; there was an eager
sentence glowing on her tongue, but her father had not finished his:

"I know all that you can say; that you have nothing to do with her
religious, or non-religious, views, and that she is a splendid teacher.
I don't doubt it; but I repeat to you that I distrust all of them. I
don't know why they have seen fit to come to our Sabbath-school, and to
our meeting this evening, unless it be to gain an unhappy influence over
some whom they desire to lead astray. I can hardly think so meanly of
them as that, either. I do not say that such was their motive, but
simply that I do not understand it, and am afraid of it; and I desire
you to have just as little to do with any of them as ordinary civility
will admit. Hitherto I have thought of Ruth Erskine as simply a leader
of fashion, and of Flossy Shipley as the tool of the fashionable world;
but I am afraid their dangerous friends are leading them to be more. The
tableau affair, to-night, I have investigated to a certain degree, and I
consider it one of the worst of its kind. I would not have you
associated with it for--well, any consideration that I can imagine; and
yet, if I mistake not, I heard them urging you to join them."

Again Grace essayed to speak, but the pealing of the door bell
interrupted her.

"Who is it, Hannah?" Dr. Dennis questioned, as that personage peeped her
head in at the door.

"It is four young ladies, Dr. Dennis, and they want to see you."

Grace arose to depart.

"Do you know any of them, Hannah?" the doctor asked.

"Well, sir, one of them is the Miss Wilbur who teaches, and I think
another is Dr. Mitchell's daughter. I don't know the others."

"Show them in here," said Dr. Dennis, promptly. "And, daughter, you will
please remain. They have doubtless come to petition me for your
assistance in the tableaux, and I have not the least desire to be
considered a household tyrant, or to have them suppose that you are my
prisoner. I would much rather that you should give them your own
opinions on the subject like a brave little woman."

"But father," Grace said, and there was a gleam of mischief in her eye,
"I haven't any opinions on this subject. The most that I can say i