"Mr Raymond, you and Miss Courtenay do say such odd things! Is that because you are religious people?" Oh, what a strange feeling came over me when Miss Newton said that! What made her count me a "religious person"? Am I one? I should not have dared to say it. I should like to be so; I am afraid to go further. To reckon myself one would be to sign my name as a queen, and I am not sufficiently sure of my royal blood to do it. But what had I ever said to Miss Newton that she should entertain such an idea? Mr Raymond glanced at me with a brotherly sort of smile, which I wished from my heart that I deserved, (for all he is a Whig!) and was afraid I did not. Then he said,-- "Religious people, I believe, are often very odd things in the eyes of irreligious people. Do you count yourself among the latter class, Miss Theresa?" "Oh, I don't make any profession," said she. "I have but one life, and I want to enjoy it." "That is exactly my position," said Mr Raymond, smiling. "Now, what do you mean?" demanded she. "Don't the Methodists label everything `wicked' that one wants to do?" "`One' sometimes means another," replied Mr Raymond, with a funny look in his eyes. "They do not put that label on anything I want to do. I cannot answer for other people." "I am sure they would put it on a thousand things that I should," said Miss Newton. "Am I to understand that speaks badly for them?--or for you?" "Mr Raymond! You know I make no profession of religion. I think it is much better to be free." The look in Mr Raymond's eyes seemed to me very like Divine compassion. "Miss Theresa, your remark makes me ask two questions: Do you suppose that `making no profession' will excuse you to the Lord? Does your Bible read, `He that maketh no profession shall be saved'? And also-- Are you free?" "Am I free? Why, of course I am!" she cried. "I can do what I like, without asking leave of priest or minister." "God forbid that you should ask leave of priest or minister! But I can do what I like, also. What the Lord likes, I like. No priest on earth shall come between Him and me." "That sounds very grand, Mr Raymond. But just listen to me. I know a young gentlewoman who says the same thing. She is dead against everything which she thinks to be Popery. Submit to the Pope?--no, not for a moment! But this dear creature has a pet minister, who is to her exactly what the Pope is to his subjects. She won't dance, because Mr Gardiner disapproves of it; she can't sing a song, of the most innocent sort, because Mr Gardiner thinks songs naughty; she won't do this, and she can't go there, because Mr Gardiner says this and that. Now, what do you call that?"