r chin resting on her hands, and stare into vacancy for half an hour.
She was very much bewildered. Col. Baker had awakened a train of thought
that would never slumber again. He need not hope for such a thing. Her
brother Charlie saw deeper into her nature than she did herself. She was
tenacious of an idea; she had grasped at this one, which, of itself,
would perhaps never have occurred to her.

Hitherto she had played at cards as she had played on the piano or
worked at her worsted cats and dogs, or frittered away an evening in
the smallest of small talk, or done a hundred other things, without
thought of results, without so much as realizing that there were such
things as results connected with such trifling commonplaces.

At least, so far as the matter of cards was concerned, she would never
do so again. Her quiet had been disturbed. The process of reasoning by
which she found herself disturbed was very simple. She had discovered,
as if by accident, that her pastor; as she loved to call Dr. Dennis,
lingering on the word, now that it had such a new meaning for her,
disapproved of card-playing, not only for himself, but for her; at least
that Col. Baker so supposed.

Now there must be some foundation for this belief of his. Either there
was something in the nature of the game which Col. Baker recognized, and
which she did not, that made him understand, as by instinct, that it
would be disapproved by Dr. Dennis, or else he had heard him so express
himself, or else he was totally mistaken, and was misrepresenting that
gentleman's character.

She thought all this over as she sat staring into space, and she went
one step further--she meant to discover which of these three statements
was correct. If Dr. Dennis thought it wrong to play cards, then he must
have reasons for so thinking. She accepted that at once as a necessity
to the man. They must also have been carefully weighed reasons, else he
would not have given them a place in his creed. This also was a
necessity to a nature like his.

Clearly there was something here for her to study; but how to set about
it? Over this she puzzled a good deal; she did not like to go directly
to Dr. Dennis and ask for herself; she did not know how to set to work
to discover for herself the truth; she could pray for light, that to be
sure; but having brought her common sense with her into religious
matters, she no more expected light to blaze upon her at the moment of
praying for it