THE BACKSLIDING
"If you can't stop her she must go home to her niece, though she can't really afford to keep her and oughtn't to be asked"
"Do I understand that Harriet is in doubt—has lost her Christian faith?"
"Oh, well—no; but in a way I suppose she has. She says that she—she can't see—in fact, she doesn't believe any more in the Holy Ghost!"
"Doesn't believe in h—in it?" Mr. Freeland was absolutely unprepared for precisely this form of agnosticism, and showed it.
"She says she doesn't see any sense in it," responded Mrs. Markham, briefly.
"Oh—ah, yes!" The pastor looked vaguely over her head. There was a pause, and then he gathered himself together.
"But this—this is all wrong!" he said forcibly.
"So we tell her," replied the matron.
"It is sinful—it is extremely dangerous!" he repeated, still more forcibly.
"That's what the Widow Sheldon says," replied the matron. "She lectures her about it every meal,
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