Page:Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920).djvu/292

260 “Well, Mrs. Bell, I only asked because every one thinks it is strange he doesn’t — and an elder, of all people. It looks as if he didn’t think himself a Christian, you know. Of course, we all know better, but it looks that way. If I was you, Id tell him folks was talking about it. Mr. Bentley says it is hindering the full success of the meetings.”

Mrs. Bell turned on her tormentor in swift anger. She might resent her husband’s strange behavior herself, but nobody else should dare to criticize him to her.

“I don’t think you need worry yourself about the elder, Flora Jane,” she said bitingly. “Maybe ’tisn’t the best Christians that do the most talking about it always. I guess, as far as living up to his profession goes, the elder will compare pretty favorably with Levi Boulter, who gets up and testifies every night, and cheats the very eye-teeth out of people in the daytime.”

Levi Boulter was a middle-aged widower, with a large family, who was supposed to have cast a matrimonial eye Flora Janeward. The use of his name was an effective thrust on Mrs. Bell’s part, and silenced Flora Jane. Too angry for speech she seized her sister’s arm and hurried her into church.

But her victory could not remove from Mary Bell’s soul the sting implanted there by Flora Jane’s words. When her husband came up to the platform