“And then he lectured me,” Enna went on, “as if it was all my fault, when of course it was her own carelessness; for if it wasn’t, why haven’t some of the rest of us fallen down.  Accidents happen when nobody’s to blame.”

“I came near falling the other day, myself,” said Mrs. Conly, “and I’ll never wear a high, narrow heel again, nor let one of my girls do so.  Now I’m going out.  You two ought to take a nap; Molly especially, poor child!  I’m very sorry for you; but don’t cry any more now.  It will only hurt your eyes.”

Mrs. Conly was to stay to tea and spend the evening.  Stepping into the parlor she found all the adult members of the family there.

“I want to have a talk with you, Louise,” her brother said, seating her comfortably on a sofa and drawing up a chair beside her.

“And I think I know what about,” she returned with heightened color, glancing toward Elsie, “but let me tell you beforehand, Horace, that you may as well spare yourself the trouble.  I have already accepted Mrs. Delaford’s offer.”

“Louise! how could you be so hasty in so important a matter?”

“Permit me to answer that question with another,” she retorted, drawing herself up haughtily, “what right have you to call me to an account for so doing?”

“Only the right of an older brother to take a fraternal interest in your welfare and that of his nieces.”

“What is it, mother?” asked Calhoun.

She told him in a few words, and he turned to his uncle with the query why he so seriously objected to her acceptance of what seemed so favorable an offer.

“Because I think it would be putting in great jeopardy the welfare of your sisters, temporal and spiritual”

“What nonsense, Horace!” exclaimed Mrs. Conly angrily.  “Of course I shall expressly stipulate that their faith is not to be interfered with.”

“And just as much of course the promise will be given and systematically broken without the slightest compunction; because in the creed of Rome the end sanctifies the means and no end is esteemed higher or holier than that of adding members to her communion.”

“Well,” said Louise, “I must say you judge them hardly.  I’m sure there are at least some pious ones among them and of course they wouldn’t lie.”

“You forget that the more pious they are, the more obedient they will be to the teachings of their church, and when she tells them it is a pious act to be false to their word or oath, for her advancement, or to burn, kill and destroy, or to break any other commandment of the decalogue, they will obey believing that thus they do God service.

“Really the folly and credulity of Protestant parents who commit their children to the care of those who teach and put in practice, too, these two maxims, so utterly destructive of all truth and honesty, all confidence between man and man—­’The end sanctifies the means,’ and ’No faith with heretics,’—­is to me perfectly astounding.”