"But it isn't Christianity, aunt," Mildred said earnestly. "And do you not know some Christians who are very different?"
"Yes, there's Mrs. Travilla, at Ion, where we are going now. She is always cheerful, quite merry at times, and a great deal better woman, to my thinking, than Mrs. Landreth, though she doesn't appear to think so herself. In fact she's too good for me; gives me an uncomfortable sense of my own inferiority in that respect."
"Poor; child," exclaimed Mrs. Dinsmore, laughing. "Wouldn't Charlie and his uncle be mortified if they could hear that question! Poor! no, indeed! Mr. Landreth could afford twenty paintings as costly as that; but he isn't allowed to enjoy one, and the house looks forlorn and comfortless from garret to cellar."
"She gives a great deal to missions, and to the poor, and the church, but I think it would be well for her to remember that charity begins at home, and to bestow a little kindness upon her husband and his nephew. If they were beggars she would perhaps think it worth while to pay some attention to their comfort; as it is they get nothing from her but sermons and lectures on their worldliness and wickedness."
"But Mr. Charlie Landreth doesn't seem to me like a bad young man," said Mildred, in surprise.
"He isn't," said Mrs. Dinsmore, "he's a thorough gentleman and has no vices; there isn't a finer young man the country round. But he isn't pious; so of course she considers him a reprobate."
"I have heard my mother speak of Mrs. Travilla as a lovely Christian lady and an intimate friend of Aunt Eva," said Mildred, willing to introduce a new topic.
"Yes; and I always feel that she is making comparisons, unfavorable to me of course, between Mr. Dinsmore's first wife and myself. So I can hardly be expected to be very fond of her."
"But isn't it possible that you may be mistaken, Aunt Isabel?"
"I'm not given to fancies," was the ungracious rejoinder.
Then there was a short silence broken presently by a query from Mildred.
"No; only a son; and he's away in Europe. The families--ours and theirs--have always been intimate, Edward Travilla and Horace inseparable companions, and they went to Europe together."
"It seems odd I should have been here so long without meeting Mrs. Travilla."