in my very heart that joining the church, and trying to do about right,
was all there was of religion; but I have found that I was wonderfully
mistaken. Can't persons be honest, and yet be very much in the dark
because they have not informed themselves?"

"Why, dear me!" said Marion, "only see, Ruth, where your doctrine would
lead you! What about the heathen women who think in their hearts that
they do a good deed when they give their babies to the crocodiles?"

"I found that verse about Paul persecuting all who called on the name of
Jesus, and he says he verily thought he was doing God's service." This
was Flossy's added word.

"See here," said Eurie, "we are not getting at it at all. I haven't any
verses, and you have demolished Ruth's. The way is for you and Flossy to
open your batteries on us, and let us prove to you that they don't any
of them mean a single word they say, or _you_ say; or _something_,
_anything_, so that we win the argument. What I want to know is, what
earthly harm do people see in dancing? I don't mean, of course, going to
balls and mingling with all sorts of people and dancing indecent
figures. I mean the way we girls have been in the habit of it, Ruth and
Flossy and I. We never went to a ball in our lives, and we were never
injured by dancing, so far as I can discover, and yet we have done a
good deal of it. Now I love to dance; it is the very pleasantest
amusement I can think of; and yet I honestly want to get at the truth of
this matter; I want to learn; I don't in the least know why churches
and Christians think such dancing is wrong. I couldn't find a thing in
the Bible that showed me the reason. To be sure I had very little time
to look, and a very ignorant brain to do it with, and no helps. But I am
ready to be convinced, if anybody has anything that will convince me."

"Just let me ask you a question," Marion said: "Why did you think,
before you were converted, that it was wrong for Christian people to
dance?"

"How do you know I did?" asked Eurie, flushing and laughing.

"Never mind how I know; though you must have forgotten some of the
remarks I have heard you make about others, to ask me. But please tell
me."

"Honestly, then, I don't know; and it is that thought, or rather that
remembrance, which disturbs me now. I had a feeling that someway it was
an inconsistent thing to do, and that if I was converted I should have
to give it up, and it was a real stumbling-block in my way