"We went sketching?"
"How critical you are this morning. I didn't say we sketched, I said we went. What's the matter, Ted? I believe you are envious of my reserved cuts, and would fain be with me instead of sitting in church waving a fan and feeling limp as to collar and stiff as to clothes. It is warm for the season, and one hates to be cooped up. Come, go along anyhow. What will it matter a hundred years hence if you do happen to over-cut once?"
"Charity Shepherd would say it might matter a great deal; she believes so implicitly in fire and brimstone."
"Poor dear Charity, she suffers long and is kind, though she certainly does seek her own. She runs with the most obviously pious crowd on Sundays, I don't mean religious, I mean the kind that were not only born pious, but achieved it and had it thrust upon them, so they exhale an atmosphere which suggests the Shorter Catechism, Fox's Book of Martyrs, and Old Hundred. Now, I consider myself religious—"
"You do?" Teddy smiled incredulously.
"You needn't smile that way," said Janet, "I really am. I am not pious; I don't enjoy prayer-meetings, and fast-days. I don't like to mortify the flesh as Charity does, and as it is evident that her colleagues do. The unspeakable dreadfulness of their clothes declares that. Why must women almost invariably look like guys when they have a hobby?"
"They don't always," said Teddy.
"No, not all, but the majority do, those I sometimes see in a fine frenzy of zeal rushing along with Charity. There she goes now across the street. She has all sorts of things in her hands, and she is late so she is struggling with her gloves and trying not to drop her belongings. You won't go with me this morning, Ted?"
"If you will wait till this afternoon, I will go."
"Sorry I can't. The mood is upon me now. I feel in an out-of-door worshipful humor and I might slump before noon if I stayed here, especially if I were to wait till after a hearty dinner. No, I'll go now and come back so spiritualized you will envy me." She picked up her book and an umbrella and started forth.