Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/311

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brain and long before noon no trace of disorder was to be seen. As Mrs. De Vere often lamented, she was not "like other girls." Generous to a fault and charitable toward her friends, yet, like Granny, she would not tolerate weakness nor a deviation from her standard of right.

During her grandmother's lifetime, her religious training was strictly in accordance with the teachings of the Reformed Dutch Church. The Bible, including punctuation marks, she had been taught to regard as a direct revelation from God and her childish doubts were sternly rebuked. After the old lady's death, other influences crept in and association with people of expanded minds created a tumult in her naturally analytical brain. But the first impression was too deep to be completely obliterated, and though she could not conscientiously become a member of the church in whose doctrine she had been so thoroughly grounded, any imputation that her belief in it was weak was resented until obliged to admit that it was true, and even