“What do you think of that?” demanded Carol.  “Isn’t that heresy?  She’s as bad as the priest and Levite, isn’t she?”

“Did you ask Miss Allen about it?”

“No, indeed, we’ve just ignored Miss Allen ever since.  We have watched her as closely as we could since then, to see if we could catch her up again.  Of course she has to be careful what she says in school, but we found several strong points against her.  It’s a perfectly plain case, no doubt about it.”

“And so you went among the other freshmen influencing them, and telling tales, and criticizing your——­”

“No indeed, Prue, we wouldn’t!  But you know it says in the Bible to beware of false doctrines and the sowers of bad seed,—­or something like that—­”

“And we bewared as hard as we could!” grinned Carol.

“We have tried to explain these things to the other freshmen so Miss Allen could not lead them into—­into error.  Oh, that’s Christian Science, isn’t it?  Well, Minnie Carlson is a Christian Scientist and she talks so much about falling into error that—­honestly——­”

“We can’t tell error from truth any more,” interjected Carol neatly.  “And so I hope you won’t punish us if we accidentally vary from the truth once in a while.”

This was quite beyond Prudence’s depth.  She knew little of Christian Science save that it was a widely accepted creed of recent origin.  So she brought the twins back to Miss Allen again.  “But, twins, do you think it was kind, and Christian, and—­and like parsonage girls, to accept all this against Miss Allen without giving her a chance to defend herself?”

“As I told you, Prue, we have watched her very close since then.  She has never come right out in the open,—­she wouldn’t dare,—­but she has given herself away several times.  Nothing can get by us when we’re on the watch, you know!”

Prudence knew.  “What did Miss Allen say?”

The twins thought seriously for a while.

“Oh, yes, Lark,” suggested Carol finally, “don’t you remember she said the Bible was an allegory?”

“What?”

“Yes, she did.  She was explaining to the English class what was meant by allegory, and she said the purpose of using allegory was to teach an important truth in a homely impressive way that could be remembered.  She mentioned several prominent allegories, and said the Bible was one.  And you know yourself Prue, that the Bible is Gospel truth, and—­I mean, it is so!  I mean——­”

“What she means,” said Lark helpfully, “is that the Bible is not just a pretty way of teaching people to be good, but it’s solid fact clear through.”

“That’s very well expressed, Lark,”—­Prudence herself could not have expressed it half so well!  “But how do you twins understand all these things so thoroughly?”