She shrugged her shoulders. "Yes, but you know we always want that which we have not. Yet they say that envy is among the mortal sins."
"Well, a sin's a sin, I reckon," remarked Silas.
"Oh, no! there are degrees in sin. I used to know a preacher who could run the scale of evil-doing and thinking, just as I can trip along the notes on the piano."
"They once tried to make a preacher out of me," remarked Silas, "but when I slipped in the church one day and went up into the pulpit, I found it was a great deal too big for me."
"They make them larger now," said the lady, "so that they will hold the exhorter and the horrible example at the same time."
"Did Paul ever see my picture there?" asked Silas, changing the conversation into a more congenial channel.
"Why, I think so," replied the lady placidly. "I think he asked about it, and I told him that we had known each other long ago, which was not at all the truth."
"What did Paul say to that?" asked Silas eagerly.
"He said that while some people might think you were queer, you had been a good dad to him. I think he said dad, but I'll not be sure."
"Yes, yes, he said it," cried Silas, all in a glow. "That's Paul all over; but what will the poor boy think when he finds out what you know?"