"What folly!" cried the rector, his face flushed with annoyance. "What possessed Helen to say such a thing! She ought to have had more sense. Mark my words, that speech of hers will make trouble for Ward. I don't understand how Helen could be so foolish; she was brought up just as Lois was, yet, thank Heaven, her head isn't full of whims about reforming a community. What in the world made her express such an opinion if she had it, and what made her have it?" Dr. Howe had risen, and walked impatiently up and down the room, and now stood in front of Gifford, with a forefinger raised to emphasize his words. "There is something so absurd, so unpleasant, in a young woman's meddling with things which don't belong to her, in seeing a little mind struggle with ideas. Better a thousand times settle down to look after her household, and cook her husband's dinner, and be a good child." Lois laughed nervously. "She has a cook," she said. "Don't be pert, Lois, for Heaven's sake," answered her father, though Miss Deborah had added,-- "Gifford says dear Helen is a very good housekeeper." "Pray," continued the rector, "what business is it of hers what people believe, or what she believes herself, for that matter, provided she's a good girl, and does her duty in that station of life where it has pleased God to put her,--as the wife of a Presbyterian minister? 'Stead of that she tries to grapple with theological questions, and gets into hot water with the parish. 'Pon my word, I thought better of the child! I'll write and tell her what I think of it." (And so he did, the very next day. But his wrath had expended itself in words, and his letter showed no more of his indignation than the powdery ashes which fell out of it showed the flame of the cigar he was smoking when he wrote it.) "And as for Ward himself," the rector went on, "I don't know what to think of him. Did you know he had given up his salary? Said 'Helen had enough for them to live on,' and added that they had no right to any more money than was necessary for their comfort; anything more than that belonged to the Lord's poor. Bless my soul, the clergyman comes under that head, to my mind. Yes, sir, he's willing to live on his wife! I declare, the fellow's a--a--well, I don't know any word for him!" There was a chorus of astonishment from the ladies. "'Christian' would be a pretty good word," said Gifford slowly. "Isn't he following Christ's example rather more literally than most of us?" "But to live on his wife!" cried Dr. Howe. "I don't believe," Gifford responded, smiling, "that that would distress John Ward at all." "Apparently not," said the rector significantly. "He loves her too much," Gifford went on, "to think of himself apart from her; don't you see? They are one; what difference does it make about the money?" "Could you do it?" asked Dr. Howe. "Well, no," Gifford said, shrugging his shoulders; "but then, I'm not John Ward." "Thank Heaven!" said the rector devoutly.