"What does he do?" asked Laura, trying for the point.
But poor Augustina, in her mixed flurry of feeling, could hardly explain.
"You see, Laura, there's a strict way of keeping Lent, and—well—just the common way—doing as little as you can. It used to be all much stricter, of course."
"In the Dark Ages?" suggested Laura. Augustina took no notice.
"And what the books tell you now, is much stricter than what anybody does.—I'm sure I don't know why. But Alan takes it strictly—he wants to go back to quite the old ways. Oh! I wish I could explain it——"
Mrs. Fountain stopped bewildered. She was sure she had heard once that in the early Church people took no food at all till the evening—not even a drink. But Alan was not going to do that?
Laura had taken Fricka on her knee, and was straightening the ribbon round the dog's neck.
"Does he eat anything?" she asked carelessly, looking up. "If it's nothing—that would be interesting."
"Laura! if you only would try and understand!—Of course Alan doesn't settle such a thing for himself—nobody does with us. That's only in the English Church."
Augustina straightened herself, with an unconscious arrogance. Laura looked at her, smiling.