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82 "I know, but this is really a matter I ought to attend to."

"You can go down early to-morrow morning and attend to it. I shall be so disappointed if you don't walk up with me. And stop and have luncheon with us. Do! Father is so fond of discussing politics with you."

"Thank you, Jane. But it's out of the question for me to stop to luncheon. It really is."

"Then walk up with me, anyway."

"All right! I'll do that."

Mrs. Tracy was already moving homeward in her luxuriously appointed car, and Ruth and her lover had started slowly up the walk. His eyes were alight and his cheeks aglow with pleasant anticipation. To walk a mile with Ruth Tracy through the invigorating air of a beautiful September noonday was a privilege that any man might covet, much more a man in whose heart she filled so large and so queenly a place as she did in Philip Westgate's.

But no sooner were they on their way than recurrence was had to the subject of the morning sermon.

"I like Mr. Farrar," said Westgate. "I believe he intends to say and do the right thing. But he has permitted himself, by reason of his sympathy with toiling humanity, to be led off into strange paths."

"I like him too," responded Ruth. "And I can't help feeling that he's on the right track. I don't believe there's any other way than the one he suggests to evangelize the working people. Just think what he's done already. Did you ever see more persons of all kinds coming to the services at Christ Church than he is drawing there now?"

"No; but big congregations do not necessarily make the Church prosperous, nor advance the cause of religion. These people come because it pleases them to hear attacks made on the rich, and commendation given to the poor. It is simply an expression of class conscious-