“There is a clergyman who comes once a week to give us a scripture lesson. He is only a curate and looks very shy. We had a most exciting time with him yesterday. We all shied paper wads, and he moved nearly every one up and sent one girl out of the room.” “He can’t,” I said, “have been as shy as he looked. But I’m beginning to understand why the Archdeacon was shocked.” “He didn’t mind that,” said the Canon; “at least not much.” Lalage’s letter went on: “I was glad, that it wasn’t me, who was just as bad, that he didn’t what he calls ‘make an example of.’ Even that didn’t calm the excited class and he said, ‘Next person who laughs will be reported to Miss Pettigrew.’ It was not me, but the girl next me, Eileen Fraser. I was the innocent cause of the offence. (A mere wink at Hilda when I had my belt round her neck.) She was not, however, reported, even to Carpy.” “By the way,” I said, “who is Carpy? She comes into my letter too.” The Canon did not know and seemed uninterested in the point. He went on reading: “Another day he committed an unforgivable offence. He said to us, ‘You must stand up when quoting the words of the Bible.’” “Isn’t that always considered essential?” I asked. “The unforgivable offence,” said the Canon, “is in the next sentence.” “But _he_ sat with his feet on the fender, the pig. I do hate that sort. Even when Hilda said that Ananias told a lie and was turned into a pillar of salt he did not laugh. He said he’d turn one girl out of the room to-day for nothing but dropping her pen.” “The Archdeacon,” I said, “could of course sympathize with that curate.” “It wasn’t that which made him really angry,” said the Canon, “although he didn’t like it.” “There must be something pretty bad coming, if it’s worse than that.” The Canon sighed heavily and went on reading “Hilda taught me the two-step at rec. Another girl (also in my class and jolly nice) played them.” The Canon looked up with a puzzled expression. I explained as well as I could. “The two-step,” I said, “is a dance. What the jolly, nice girl played is a little obscure, but I think it must have been tunes suitable to the performance of the two-step. ‘Rec.’ is a shortened form of recreation. Lalage is fond of these contractions. She writes to me about her comp.” The canon read: “On the other days, the old Pet takes us herself at Scrip: We were at Genesis, and she read out, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven, and the earth.’ ‘But of course you all know He didn’t. Modern science teaches us----’ Then she went on with a lot of rot about gases and forces and nebulous things.” “The Archdeacon,” said the Canon, “is going to write to the Archbishop of Dublin about it. He says that kind of teaching ought not to be allowed.”