Marion laughed.

“I’m here in the capacity of a newspaper writer, please remember,” she answered promptly, “and what I don’t know I can imagine, like the rest of that brilliant fraternity.  I am not really positive about a great many of the statements that I made, except on the general principle that these people belong to the class who are very much given to doing according to their printed word.  It says on the circulars that the gates will be closed on the Sabbath, and I dare say they will be.  At least, we have a right to assume such to be the case until it is proven false.”

“What class of people do you mean who are given to doing as they have agreed?  Christian people, do you refer to?”

“Well, yes; the sort of Christians that one meets at such a gathering as this.  As a rule, the namby-pamby Christians stay away from such places; or, if they come, they float off to Saratoga or some more kindred climate.  I beg your pardon, Ruthie, that doesn’t mean you, you know, because you are not one of any sort.”

“Then do you take it to be their religion which inclines you to trust to their word, without having an individual acquaintance with them?”

Marion shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh, bother!” she said, gayly, “you are not turning theologian, or police detective in search of suspicious characters, are you?  I never pretend to pry into my notions for and against people and things; if I was betrayed into anything that sounded like common sense I beg your pardon.  I am out on a frolic, and mean to have it if there is any such thing.”

“Well, before you go back into absolute nonsense let me ask you one more question.  Do you really feel as deeply as you pretended to that man, on all these questions of the Chautauqua conscience?  I mean, is it a vital point in your estimation whether people go there to church on Sunday or not?”

Marion hesitated, and a fine glow deepened on her face as she said, after a little, speaking with grave dignity: 

“I do not know that I can explain myself to you, Ruth, and I dare say that I seem to you like a bundle of contradictions; but it is a real pleasure to me to come in contact with people who have earnest faith and eager enthusiasm over anything, and principle enough to stand by their views through evil and good report.  In this way, and to a great degree, this meeting is a positive delight to me, though I know personally as little about the feeling from which they think their actions take rise as any mortal can.  Does that answer satisfy you, my blessed mother confessor? or are you more muddled than ever over what I do, and especially over what I do not believe?”

“If I believed as much as you do I should look further.”

Ruth said this with emphasis; and there was that in it which, despite her attempts to throw it off, set Marion to thinking, and kept her wonderfully quiet during their return trip.