"No," she answered, "I don't think it is. To provide the luxury of electric light in a place where the gas is quite good and sufficient, seems to me to be not so much doing the Will of God as paying our debts, and going for a holiday, which will give you strength to do His work better." Luke was silent. "Besides," she added in a lower voice and smiling, "you forget next January." Luke looked mystified. Then noticing the expression of his wife's eyes, he remembered. "I forgot for the moment," he said. "You are quite right." At the thought of January Rachel's face had lost all the surprise and disappointment as she looked down again at the envelope containing the cheque. Then she suddenly drew it out with a gay laugh and flourished it in his face. "Happily it's mine," she said, "and you can't get at it." [Illustration] CHAPTER XVI. THE CHURCH COUNCIL. "I know you won't give way," said Rachel, as she helped her husband into his coat. Luke did not answer at once. "If you remain firm this time you will find it easier the next." "I don't intend to give way," said Luke gravely. "It would be fatal." "Yes, and you would never forgive yourself." Luke buttoned up his coat and looked at his wife. "We should hear the same excuse that that old woman gave for not attending her Parish Church," he said smiling. "What was that?" "That she had been too ill for the last half year to come to the services but she was proud to say she had not missed a single Whist Drive." "Oh you mustn't give way," repeated Rachel earnestly. Then she added, laying a hand on his arm, "You know what I shall be doing." When Luke smiled his face was transfigured. He smiled now. "You will be doing the part of Moses," he said. "I am not sure that I should not fail if it were not for that." Then he opened the door and was gone. Rachel stood where he had left her looking absently at the door which he had shut after him. That the Church Councils were not always happy meetings she knew. Luke said the right people were not on it. There were some really in earnest, but these often seemed afraid of speaking. Those who spoke the most often and the loudest were those who wanted to make their Church the most popular in the town by way of parish dances, whist drives, etc. Luke, Rachel knew, had always stood out against such methods of work, but people were growing persistent, and the subject was to come up again this evening. His last words had surprised her and made her anxious, for they showed her that his resistance was growing weaker and that he felt himself in real danger of giving way.