The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1915-11-25
CHAPTER xi-Contlnued.


For just one second the rector's
other felt an impulse to shake Tod
pyd. Gail Sargent was young lady
whom any young man might ap-
sove-and what was the matter with
I'd? She was beginning to be humili-
ated by the fact that, at thirty-two, he
nd not lost his head and made fool
himself, to the point of tight shoes
I'D poetry, over girl.
"Why?" and the voice of Mrs. Boyd
as not cold as she had meant 1t to
J. She had suddenly felt some tug of
mpathy for Tod.
We'll, for one thing, she has most
sagreeable lack of reverence" he
.ated.
Reverence" and Mrs. Boyd knitted
or brows. 81 don't believe you quite
Understand her. She has the most
BEAUTIFULLY simple religious faith that
have ever seen, Tod"
The Rev. Smith Boyd watched his
oup disappearing, as if 1t were some
curious moving object TO which his at
ention had Just been called.
81 miss Sargent claims to have new
4eligion," he observed. "She has said
host unkind things about Market
Square church. She says that 1t is a
&trictly commercial institution, and
hat its motive in desiring to build the
lew cathedral is vanity"
He omitted to mention Calls further
charge that his own motive in desiring
che new cathedral was personal ambi-
lion. Candor did not compel that adj
mission. 1t did not become him to act
rom piqued personal pride.
Mrs. Boyd studied him as he gazed
a5mberly at his fish, and the wrinkles
once more returned to her eyes, as
she made up her mind to cure Tod's
4rritability.
81 am ashamed of you," she told her
son. This girl is scarcely twenty. If
/ remember rightly, and I'm sure that
1 do, you came to me, at about twenty,
and confessed to a logical disbelief in
the theory of creation, which included,
bf course, disbelief In the Creator.
You were an infidel, an atheist. You
were going to relinquish your studies
and give up all thought of the church"
The deep red of the Rev. Smith
Boyd's face testified to the truth of
this cruel charge, and he pushed back
his fish permanently.
IT most humbly confess" he stated,
and indeed he had writhed In spirit
many times over that remembrance.
r'However, mother, / have since dis
covered that to be transitional stage
through which every theological stu
dent passes"
"Yet you won't allow 1t to q girl. :"
charged Mrs. Boyd, with the severity
which she could much better have ex-
messed with a laugh. When you dis
cover that this young lady, who seems
to be in every way delightful, is so
misled as to criticize the motives of
Market Square church, you withdraw
into your dignity, with the privilege of
a layman, and announce that you do
not anproye of her. What she needs,
Tod. is religious instruction"
She had carefully ironed out the
4inv little wrinkles around her blue
ewes by the time her son looked up
erom the profound cogitation into
which this reproof had thrown him.
"Mother, | have been wrong" he
odroitted. and he seemed ever so
much brighter for the confession. He
'araw his fish toward him and ate 1t.
later the Rev. Smith Boyd present
al himself at James Sargent's house.
~r,th a new light shining In his heart;
- ha had blue eyes. He had come
- chow Gail the way and the light.
10 che had doubts, and lack OF faith,
and flippant irreverence, 1t was MS
dutv to be patient with her. for TINS
was the fault of youth. He had been
himself.
Gail's eyelids dropped and the cor.
&c az her lips twitched when Rev.
smith Boyd's name was brought up
:. her but she did her hair In another
-wsv high on her head instead OF low
:, her neck. and then she went down,
s,auiIdering in her simple little dark
e.,,,a velvet cut round at the neck.
II was afraid that your voice was
-. remaYked Gail, in tone sug-
~es,,va 81 tho fast that that would be Q
ss~~sAy fnAaaA, and she bsgan haul