that she wanted, and put her hand in her pocket for her purse,—and it wasn't there.
"Why," she exclaimed, "I'm perfectly sure I put that in my pocket before I started!"—and then she went on saying some things about nothing being lost, and so on, as if she were trying to reassure herself, while she was looking about for it.
"Bess!" said Uncle Rob, looking at her in a surprised way.
Bess bit her lip.
"What's the matter?" I asked. "It's all right for her to use her Science to help her know it isn't lost, isn't it?"
"It certainly is," said Uncle Rob. "Bess, you tell him what was the trouble."
"Partly bad manners," said Bess, shrugging her shoulders. "It's just as bad manners to take your dose of Christian Science out loud in public, as it is to have your bottle and teaspoon at the table and take your dose of medicine under everybody's nose. When any one brings his medicine bottle to the table, every one else feels like throwing plates at it; and when you talk your Science treatments out loud, every one feels like throwing contradictory thoughts at them."
