"Our conversation was left unfinished this morning, Miss Maclean," said the minister.
"Was it? I thought we had discussed the subject in all its bearings. You are to be congratulated on the substitute you found."
"Am I not?" he answered warmly. "It was all by accident, too, that I met the doctor, and he was very unwilling to come. He had just run down for one day to settle a little business matter for his aunt; but I put him near the end of the programme, so that he might not have to leave the house till near Mrs Hamilton's bedtime."
For one day! For one day!
The minister sighed. Miss Simpson had left him no choice about "speaking to" her cousin; but he did not feel equal to an encounter to-night; and certainly he could scarcely have found Mona in a less approachable mood.
"You are not a Baptist, Miss Maclean?"
"No."
"Have you studied the subject at all?"
"The Gospels are not altogether unfamiliar ground to me;" but her tone was much less aggressive than her words.
"And to what conclusion do they bring you?"