the hothouse when she became aware that Rosie was behind her, and
heard the same little gasping cry as before. "Mrs. Masterman! I want to
ask you something!" Lois had hardly looked round when the girl went on
again. "You know father and mother. They think the world of you--mother
especially. Do you suppose they'd mind very much if I--if I turned?"

Lois was puzzled. "If you did what, Rosie?"

"If I turned; if I turned Catholic."

"Oh!"

The reformed tradition was strong in Lois. She was prepared to defend it
by argument and with affection. For a minute she was almost on the point
of stating the historical Protestant position when she was deterred by
the thought of Dr. Sim. What would he have said to Rosie? She remembered
suddenly something that he once did say: "If you can seize any one
aspect of the Christian religion, do it--for the least of them all will
save you."

Remembering this, Lois withheld her arguments, asking the non-committal
question, "Why should you think of doing that?"

Rosie flushed. "Oh, I don't know. I've been"--she hung her head--"I've
been pretty bad, you know. I've told lies--and I--I tried to kill
myself--and everything."

"And you think you'd get more help that way than any other?"

"Oh, I don't know. I went twice lately--not here--in town. It frightened
me. I--I liked it."

Had Lois dared she would have asked if Jim Breen had inspired this
sudden change, but she said, merely: "Oh, I don't believe your father
and mother would feel badly in the end--not if it brought comfort to
you, Rosie dear. Is it that you want me to talk to them?--to help you
out?"

Rosie nodded silently, and with face averted in a kind of shame.

"Very well, then, I will." She felt it due to her own convictions to
add: "Perhaps I can do it all the better because--because my personal
opinions are the other way. They'll see I'm only seeking whatever may
make for your happiness." There was silence for a few seconds before she
said, in conclusion, "And oh! Rosie dear, I do hope you'll be happy,
after all--all that's been so hard for you."

Rosie was too strong and self-contained to cry, but there was a mist in
her eyes as they shook hands again and parted.

* * * * *

That night Lois wrote to her husband: "You ask me, dear Thor, if I see
my way yet, and frankly I can't say that I do. I begin, however, to
wonder if there is not a reason for my remaining puzzled and so long in
the