“I never saw anyone so intractable,” she cried to Azalea. “You would think that she actually preferred those awful people!”
“I believe they are ardent workers in the church,” murmured Azalea.
“Even so! Church work should be encouraged, and I admire her for undertaking so much of it. But you know as well as I do, Azalea, that a Minister’s wife has her own peculiar duties to perform, and they are not fundamentally concerned with—”
“Church workers,” suggested the girl.
“Well, I mean to say that she needn’t be afraid we will contaminate her. There are Christians outside the Church.”
“I’m glad to hear you say so, Lady Denby! There certainly aren’t many in it.”
“Child! How can you think of such things?”
“You flatter me,” returned Azalea. “It’s not original. Nietzsche gave me the idea. He said there was but one Christian, and Him they crucified.”
Lady Denby was outraged by this blasphemy. She was not the only person who thought Azalea Deane had developed an unpleasant emancipation since the death of her father, and she took this occasion to mention her feeling in the matter.
“I have nothing to say against the Civil Service,” she concluded, “but I have noticed that so many of the women who enter it acquire an air of independence that is unbecoming to a lady. I am speaking as a friend, and for your own good, my dear, so I trust that you will give heed to what I say.”