He came home now to find Corydon flushed with excitement. “She has such a beautiful soul!” she exclaimed. “I never met anyone like her. And we just took to each other; she told me all about herself, and we are going to be friends.”
“Who is she?” asked Thyrsis.
“She’s visiting Mr. Harding, the clergyman at Bellevue,” was the answer.
Bellevue was a town in the valley, on the other side from the university; it had a Presbyterian church, whose young pastor Thyrsis had met once or twice in his tramps about the country. This Miss Gordon, it seemed, was the niece of an elderly relative, his housekeeper; she was studying trained nursing, and afterwards intended to go out as a missionary to Africa.
“She’s so anxious to meet you,” Corydon went on. “She’s coming up to see me to-morrow, and she’s going to bring Mr. Harding. You won’t mind, will you, Thyrsis?”
“I guess I can stand it if he can,” said Thyrsis, grimly.
“You mustn’t say anything to hurt their feelings,” said Corydon, quickly. “She’s terribly orthodox, you know; and she takes it so seriously. I was surprised—I had never thought that I could stand anybody like that.”
Thyrsis merely grunted.
“I guess ideas don’t matter so much after all,” said Corydon. “It’s a deep nature that I care about. But just fancy—she was pained because the baby hadn’t been baptized!”
“You ought to have hid the dreadful truth,” said he.