"I mean losing his four best financial supporters, and those who give the most to the Easter offerings. Who is he to look to now, I should like to know? And if he only waited to consider the state of his own finances and the expense of food, (eggs are still fourpence a piece), he would not have made such a fatal mistake." Rachel was silent, but she disagreed with every word her mother-in-law had spoken. Then after a pause during which Mrs. Greville tied and untied her bonnet strings in her agitation, she said: "I don't suppose any consideration respecting finance would weigh with Luke against doing what he thinks right." "My dear, young men often make a fatal mistake in going their own way, thinking that youth must know better than age. Think of those four gray haired men who know more of the world than Luke, being set at nought like that. I have never known Luke to make such a mistake. If he had only consulted me before he had acted." Then Rachel spoke. "But don't you see how noble it was of him to keep to what he felt right even though he must have known what the result would be. I own am proud of him, and should have been bitterly disappointed if he had given way. I am sure he did the right thing." Mrs. Greville looked at her son's wife and could not but admire the way she stood up for her son's folly, (as she considered it). There was an expression on her face that any mother-in-law would have been pleased to see on the face of her son's wife. But for all that she felt it incumbent on her to give her a snub. "I daresay," she said, "that you admire him. So would most young girls who only look for actions without weighing their cost. We all admire a man who is not afraid to speak out. But when it comes to flouting those who have been kind and considerate, and who never hesitate to give money for the work, it is a different matter. Luke has done a bad thing for the parish by his action of last night." "People would never have believed in his convictions again if he had given way," said Rachel. "Well now, don't you go and encourage him in that kind of thing," said Mrs. Greville. "I hope that you recognise the fact that Luke is not a paragon of wisdom, neither can any one turn him from what he imagines his duty. But he must remember that he now has a wife to support. He not only will stubbornly stick to his point even when it means losing money for the work of the parish, but will give away every penny he possesses without a thought of the consequences. I daresay you have found that out." Rachel laughed, thinking of the pearls. "Well, am I not right?" "Luke is the most generously minded man that I have ever come across," said Rachel. And then Mrs. Greville gave her a kiss. She could not resist it; though she knew that her action would startle her daughter-in-law. "My dear," she said, "I do believe that you love that boy of mine as much as I do."