"You are too young to say that,"--he rejoined gently--"All your life is before you. The greater part of mine lies behind me." Again she glanced at him somewhat timidly.
"Mr. Walden"--she began--"I'm afraid--I suppose--I daresay you think---"
John caught the appealing flash of the blue eyes, and wondering what she was going to say. She played with the spray of lilac he had given her, and for a moment seemed to have lost her self-possession.
"I am quite sure,"--she went on, hurriedly--"that you--I mean, I'm afraid you haven't a very good opinion of me because I don't go to church---"
He looked at her, smiling a little.
"Dor't you go to church?" he asked--"I didn't know it!"
Here was a surprise for the lady of the Manor. The clergyman of her own parish,--a man, who by all accepted rule and precedent ought to have been after her at once, asking for subscriptions to this fund and that fund, toadying her for her position, and begging for her name and support, had not even noticed her absence from divine service on Sundays! She did not know whether to be relieved or dissatisfied. Such indifference to her actions piqued her feminine pride, and yet, his tone was very kind and courteous. Noting the colour coming and going on her face, he spoke again--"I never interfere personally with my parishioners, Miss Vancourt"-- he said--"To attend church or stay away from church is a matter of conscience with each individual, and must be left to individual choice. I should be the last person in the world to entertain a bad opinion of anyone simply because he or she never went to church. That would be foolish indeed! Some of the noblest and best men in Christendom to-day never go to church,--but they are none the less noble and good! They have their reasons of conscience for non- committing themselves to accepted forms of faith, and it often turns out that they are more truly Christian and more purely religious than the most constant church-goer that ever lived."
Maryllia gave a little sigh of sudden relief.
"Ah, you are a broad-minded Churchman!" she said. "I am glad! Very glad! Because you have no doubt followed the trend of modern thought,--and you must have read all the discussions in the magazines and in the books that are written on such subjects,--and you can understand how difficult it is to a person like myself to decide what is right when so many of the wisest and most educated men agree to differ."