“You mustn’t say anything to hurt their feelings,” said Corydon, quickly. “She’s terribly orthodox, you know; and she takes it so seriously. I was surprised--I had never thought that I could stand anybody like that.” Thyrsis merely grunted. “I guess ideas don’t matter so much after all,” said Corydon. “It’s a deep nature that I care about. But just fancy--she was pained because the baby hadn’t been baptized!” “You ought to have hid the dreadful truth,” said he. “I couldn’t hide things from her,” laughed Corydon, “But she says I can make a Socialist out of her, and she’ll make a Christian out of me!” His reply was, “Wait until she discovers the sensuous temperament!” But Corydon answered that Delia Gordon had a sensuous temperament also. “She seemed to me like a Joan of Arc. Just think of her going away from all her family, to a station on the Congo River! She told me all about it--how wretched the people are, and what the women suffer. She woke up in the middle of the night, and a voice told her to go--told her the name of the place. And she’d never heard it before, and hadn’t had the least idea of going away!” Thyrsis was unmoved by this miracle. “I suppose,” he said, “you’ll be hearing voices yourself, and going with her. Tell me, is she pretty?” “You wouldn’t call her pretty,” said Corydon, after a little thought. “She’s just--just dear. Oh, Thyrsis, I simply fell in love with her!” “You certainly chose an odd kind of an affinity,” he said. “A Presbyterian missionary!” “It’s worse than that,” confessed Corydon. “She’s a Seventh-day Adventist.” “Good God! And what may that be?” “Why, she keeps Saturday instead of Sunday. She calls it the Sabbath. And she thinks that ‘evolution’ is wicked, and she believes in some kind of a hell! She’s not just sure what kind, apparently.” “You watch out,” said he, “or the first thing you know she’ll be baptizing the baby behind your back.” “Would that do any good?” asked Corydon, guilelessly. He laughed as he answered, “It would, from her point of view.” To which she replied, “Well, if we didn’t know it and the baby didn’t, I guess it wouldn’t do any harm.” “And it might save him from some kind of a hell!” added Thyrsis. Section 2. Miss Gordon came the next morning, Mr. Harding with her; and the four sat out under the trees and talked. She was a girl some three years older than Corydon, but much more mature; she was short, but athletic in build, and with a bright personality. Thyrsis could see at once those fine qualities of idealism and fervor which had attracted Corydon; and to his surprise he found that, in addition to her religious virtues, the Lord had generously added a sense of humor. So Delia Gordon was really a person with whom one could have a good time.