t I thought the fact that a
time to dance was mentioned in the Bible was an item in its favor as far
as it went; but it seems I should rather have said as far as _I_ went,
for it went farther, as Marion has made me prove with that dreadful
concordance of hers. We don't own such a terrible book as that, and I
have to go skimming over the whole Bible in a distracting manner. I just
happened on the verse that says 'there is a time to dance,' and I didn't
know but there might be a special providence in it. But now, frankly, I
am on the side that Ruth has taken. It seems to be a question that is
left to individual judgment. There is no 'thus saith the Lord' about it,
any more than there is about having company, and going out to tea, and
a dozen other things. We are to do in these matters what we think is
right; and that, in my opinion, is all there is about it."

"Then you retire from the lists?" Marion asked.

"Not a bit of it. I am just as emphatically of the opinion that there is
no harm in dancing as I ever was. What I say is, that the Bible is
silent on that subject, leaving each to judge for herself."

"'As he thinketh in his heart, so is he,'" quoted Ruth. "That is my
verse, one of them; and I think it is unanswerable. If you, Marion,
think it is wicked to dance, then you would be doing a wrong thing to
dance; but, Eurie, believing it to be right and proper, has a right to
dance. Each person as he thinks in his heart."

"Then, if I think in my heart that it is right to go skating on Sunday,
it will be quite right for me to go? Is that the reasoning, Ruth?"

"No, of course; because in that instance you have the direct command,
'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'"

"But who is going to prove to me in what way I should keep it holy? I
may skate with very good thoughts in my heart, and feel that I am
keeping the spirit of the command; and, if I think so in my heart, why,
isn't it so?"

"You know it isn't a parallel case," Ruth said, slightly nettled.

"Flossy, would you speak for a dollar?" Eurie asked, suddenly turning to
her. She had been utterly grave and silent during all this war of words,
but, to judge from her face, by no means uninterested. She shook her
head now, with a quiet smile.

"I know what I think," she said, "but I don't want to speak yet; only I
want to know, Ruth, about that verse; I found that, and thought about
it. I couldn't see that it means what you think it does. I used to think