“But it seems hard, doesn’t it, to deprive a man of his profession simply because he holds certain views on what is, after all, an abstract subject--the patriarchs, or the prophets and things of that sort?” said Ella. “Lady Earlscourt said that he should be forgiven, because he really didn’t hold the views which he had preached,” laughed Phyllis. “She also said that he should not be regarded as an atheist, because he believed not only in one God, but in two.” “I wonder how many Herbert Courtland believes in,” said Ella. “You told me he talked to you on that topic the first night you met. Was it about God you and he have been talking lately?” “I’m afraid it was not.” “Oh! you found a more interesting topic, and one of more importance to two people in the bloom of youth?” “Ella!” “Oh, my dear, I don’t mean anything dreadful. Only, you know as well as I do that a healthy man and a healthy woman will never talk, when they are alone together, about God, when they can talk about each other. I think Herbert Courtland is about the healthiest man I know, and I’m sure that you are the healthiest girl. You and he are most sympathetic companions. You are not at all stupidly coy, my sweet maiden.” “I like Mr. Courtland, and why should I be coy?” “Why, indeed? I wonder what the people who have just left us will say about it?” “About it? About what!” “You coyness--or absence of coyness. Will they say that you threw yourself at his head?” (As a matter of fact, as is already known, that is just what the majority of the guests did say about her.) Phyllis reddened and seemed--for a moment or two--almost angry. Then she made a little gesture, expressive of indifference, as she cried: “After all, what does it matter what they said? I don’t care about them. It is for you I care, Ella--you, only you.” “Heavens! how seriously you say that!” cried Ella. “There’s no cause for seriousness, I hope, even if you do care a great deal for me, which I know you do. If you said so much to a man,--say, Herbert Courtland,--it would be quite another matter. There would be sufficient cause for seriousness then. But you didn’t say so much to him. He ran away before you could say it.” “Oh, Ella! please don’t talk in that way. It is not like yourself to talk in that way.”