That afternoon, while they chatted on the balcony, Mrs. Wolston made a remark which called for consideration. She was a woman of such enlightened piety, and so steeped in religious feeling, that no one was surprised when she spoke in this way.
"I have often marvelled, my dear friends, and I marvel still at all you have done in this corner of your island. Rock Castle, Falconhurst, Prospect Hill, your farms, your plantations, your fields, all prove your intelligence to be as great as your courage in hard work. But I have already asked Mme. Zermatt how it is that you have not got——"
"A chapel," Betsy answered quickly. "You are right, Merry dear, and we do undoubtedly owe it to God to build to His glory——"
"Something better than a chapel—a temple," exclaimed Jack, whom nothing ever dismayed; "a monument with a splendid steeple! When shall we begin, Papa? There is material enough and to spare. Mr. Wolston will draw the plans and we will carry them out."
"Excellent!" replied M. Zermatt with a smile; "but if I can see the temple with my mind's eye, I cannot see the pastor, the preacher."
"Frank will be that when he comes back," said Ernest.
"Meantime do not let that worry you, M. Zermatt," Mrs. Wolston put in. "We will content ourselves with saying our prayers in our chapel."
"It is an excellent idea of yours, Mrs. Wolston, and we must not forget that new colonists will be coming very soon. So we will look carefully into the matter in our spare time during the rainy season. We will look for a suitable site."
"It seems to me, dear," said Mme. Zermatt, "that if we cannot use Falconhurst as a dwelling-place any longer, it would be quite easy to alter it into an aerial chapel."
"And then our prayers would be half way to heaven already, as Frank would remark," Jack added.