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“Where is the harm in dancing? Church people condemn it, but I never could see any sin in it—not the least.”

“But there would be sin in it to me with my present views,” said Ernest.

“You used to like it as well as I did.”

“Yes, that is true; but the time has come when I must and will renounce it.”

“You expect me to give it up, too?”

“That is a matter to be determined by your own conscience. I shall not interfere.”

“There is the theatre—you will give that up too?”

“I feel that I must do that, too.”

“Then,” said Clara with a slight frown, “what congeniality of taste and pursuits is there between us?”

“Why, my loved one,” said Ernest with a smile, “fortunately theatres and dances occupy but a small portion of our time.”

“Who will escort me when I want to go?”

Ernest loved his affianced with such an intensity that he dreaded to get into an unpleasant controversy that might culminate fatally to his hopes. If he were too puritanical and inflexible, he thought, she might sever all the ties between them—an event which made him shudder to contemplate; so he replied: