and Mrs. Roberts, so that they sat down familiarly to
talk over mutual interests! But for Ester's words, spoken long ago, but
for her strong desires transmitted to him, he might have sat with a very
different circle, and talked over widely different schemes. On the edge
of this circle Gracie Dennis hovered. She could not but be interested in
their talk, for she was a Christian, and her father was a Christian, and
she had, all her life breathed in the atmosphere of a Christian home.
At the same time she could but imagine some of their ideas wild ones,
for she had never been associated with people who widely overstepped the
conventional ways of doing things; and she had, of late, been much with
Professor Ellis who had a sort of gentlemanly sneer for every phase of
Christian work, and, so far as could be discovered, believed in nothing.
He had not been outspoken, it is true, and herein lay one of the
dangers. He was too skillful to be outspoken; but the subtle poison had
been working, and although Gracie could not help being interested in
those queer boys, she could not help thinking Flossy's whole scheme
exceedingly visionary, and expected it to come to grief. The puzzling
question was, why did Mr. Roberts, being a keen-sighted man, permit it
all! Or was he so much in love with Flossy that he could not bear to
thwart even her wildest flights? It was strange, too, to see a young man
like Alfred Ried so absorbed; his sister must have had wonderful power
over him, Gracie thought.
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