Lucas, driving the ponies at a good clip, joined the procession. Lyddy and 'Phemie recognized several of the young people they had met the night before at the Temperance Club--notably the young men. Joe Badger flashed by in a red-wheeled buggy and beside him sat the buxom, red-faced girl who had voiced her distaste for the city-bred newcomers right at the start. Badger bowed with a flourish; but his companion's nose was in the air. "I never did think that Nettie Meyers had very good manners," announced Mrs. Pritchett. They overtook the schoolmaster jogging along behind his old gray mare. He, likewise, bowed profoundly to the Bray girls. "I am afraid you did not enjoy yourself last night at the club, Miss Bray," he said to Lyddy, who was on his side of the buckboard, as Lucas pulled out to pass him. "You went home so early. I was looking for you after it was all over." "Oh, but you are mistaken," declared Lyddy, pleasantly. "I had a very nice time." As they drove on Mrs. Pritchett's fat face became a study. "And he never even asked arter Sairy!" she gasped. "And he let her come home alone last night. Humph! he must ha' been busy huntin' for _you_, Miss Bray." Lucas cast oil on the troubled waters by saying: "An' I carried Miss Lyddy and Miss 'Phemie away from all of 'em. I guess _all_ the Pritchetts ain't so slow, Maw." "Humph! Wa-al," admitted the good lady, somewhat mollified, "you _hev_ seemed to 'woke up lately, Lucas." The chapel was built of graystone and its north wall was entirely covered with ivy. It nestled in a grove of evergreens, with the tidy fenced graveyard behind it. The visitors thought it a very beautiful place. Everybody was rustling into church when they arrived, so there were no introductions then. The pastor was a stooped, gray old man, who had been the incumbent for many years, and to the Bray girls his discourse seemed as helpful as any they had ever heard. After service the girls of Hillcrest Farm were introduced to many of the congregation by Mrs. Pritchett. Naturally these were the middle-aged, or older, members of the flock--mostly ladies who knew, or remembered, the girls' mother and Aunt Jane. Indeed, it was rather noticeable that the young women and girls did not come forward to meet Lyddy and 'Phemie. Not that either of the sisters cared. They liked the matrons who attended Cornell Chapel much better than they had most of the youthful members of the Temperance Club. Some of the young men waited their chance in the vestibule to get a bow and a smile of recognition from the newcomers; but only the schoolmaster dared attach himself for any length of time to the Pritchett party. And Mrs. Pritchett could not fail to take note of this at length. The teacher was deep in some unimportant discussion with Lyddy, who was sweetly unconscious that she was fanning the fire of suspicion in Mrs. Pritchett's breast.