There were a hundred things laid down in her programme for the coming winter that she knew perfectly well were not the things to do or say, provided she were a Christian, and she deliberately wished to avoid the fear of becoming one.  Just here she was afraid of the influence of Chautauqua.

How was it possible to attend these meetings, to listen to these daily, hourly addresses, teeming either directly or indirectly with the same thought, personal consecration, without feeling herself drawn within the circle?  She would not be drawn.  This was her deliberate conclusion, therefore her determination.

It was almost well for her that she could not realize on what fearfully dangerous ground she was treading!  I wonder if those over whom the Lord says, “Let them alone,” are ever conscious at the time that the order has gone forth, and that they are to feel their consciences pressing home this matter no more?

“Well,” said Marion, after turning this resolution over in her mind for a few minutes, “I dare say you will lose a good many things worth hearing; but I have nothing to do with that—­only I want you to go with me up to hear Mrs. Knox this morning.  I’ve got to go, for I promised especially to report her for the teachers at home, and it is stupid to go alone. She won’t preach, and she won’t bore you, and I want you to help me remember items.”

So, much against her will, Eurie was coaxed into this departure from her programme, and came back from the meeting in intense disgust.

“Talk about her not preaching,” she said, venting her annoyance on Marion while she energetically brushed her hair.  “Every fold of her dress preached a sermon!  She makes me ache all over, she is so powerfully in earnest; and didn’t she hint what angels of goodness those girls of hers were—­those teachers!  I’d like to know how they could be anything else but good with such an example at hand.  Just think, Marion, of having the brains that that woman has, and the energy and tact and the skill of a general, and then forcing it into a Sunday-school class room for the teaching of a hundred little dots that have just tumbled out of their cradles!”

“Well, if she teaches them to tumble out on the right side so that they will come up grand men and women, what then?  Isn’t that an ambition worthy of her?”

“Stuff and nonsense!  Don’t you go to preaching.  I shall go and drown myself in the lake if I hear any more of it, and then one worthless person will be out of the way.  But don’t you dare to ask me to go and hear that woman again!  I won’t give up my plans in life for hers, and she needn’t hint it to me.  And, Marion Wilbur, I am not going to listen to another man or woman who has the least chance to fire words right at me—­now mark my words.”