"Godless!"
"You know quite well what I mean: your flagrant absence from services, your irreverent remarks when a religious topic is discussed, your readiness to put frivolous pleasures before church duties, and your studied avoidance of all the friends of the family."
"Except Robert Lloyd," interjected Emily, pointedly.
"Why drag in Robert?" said Janet, flashing a look at her sister. "You got mamma to forbid him the house a whole month ago."
"I had every reason to believe Mr. Lloyd to be an atheist," said Mrs. Barr, who thus concisely classified all disbelievers in revealed creeds. "That is why I requested you not to invite him here again."
"Leaving me to the edifying companionship of Emily's stuffy pedagogue friends," said Janet, in a white heat.
"We needn't pursue that matter now, Janet. What I wish to say at present is merely that a masked ball is out of the question. A masked ball! What are you thinking of, my child? Not to say that the invitation comes from people who are perfectly impossible."
"Impossible!" cried Janet, bursting out under terrible pressure. "They're quite possible for me. Do you expect me to chum up with Emily's high school cats, or the old maids from the King's daughters, or the decrepit old ladies from your missionary club?"
Her mother fairly reeled at the impudence of the attack.
This from Janet, of all people! The girl had always been a mild-tempered and tractable child. That is, she had been entirely tractable except for half a dozen fits of rebellion so scattered in point of time and so completely suppressed in point of fact that they could conveniently be overlooked. But a face-to-face defiance of a maternal decree was a new and startling departure. It was an unheard of act, such as Mrs. Barr could ascribe only to the promptings of the Evil One, inducted into Janet's acquaintance by her Kips Bay friends.