"I suppose you would," said Gertrude.
"Is that the fashion now?"
"It is one fashion," Miss Masters responded.
"If it warn't, I reckon you'd do it up pretty quick. Dear me! what a thing it is to be in the fashion, I do suppose."
"Don't you like it yourself, ma'am?" queried Gertrude.
"Never try. I've something else to do in life."
"Well, but there's no harm in being in the fashion, Mis' Flandin," said Miss Gunn. "The minister said he thought there warn't."
"The minister had better take care of himself," Mrs. Flandin retorted.
Whereupon they all opened upon her. And it could be seen that for the few months during which he had been among them, the minister had made swift progress in the regards of the people. Scarce a tongue now but spoke in his praise or his justification, or called Mrs. Flandin to account for her hasty remark.
"When you're all done, I'll speak," said that lady coolly. "I'm not a man-worshipper—never was; and nobody's fit to be worshipped. I should like to see the dominie put down that grey horse of his."