The Farringdons

eary of new tr

ead to

remedies pre

ortal

e them all one

stretche

remaine?" asked Elisabeth, not lo

I have as little in common as I have with Mr. Tremaine. But he st

, walking across the room and looking through the window at the valley smiling in th

by their own brilliance at first, and consider that they were sent into the world s

he blind-cord. "I think he is

nglish tongue in trust-it belongs to the nation and not to us-and we have no more right to profane England's language by

get again. But you really do th

ack of appearing even more intelligent than he is; b

enough to know that he isn't

it in that way, but that approximately e

I mean frightf

my house. That money is a convenience to the possessor of it, I do not attempt to deny; but that the presence or the absence of it should be counted as a matter of any moment (except to the man himself), presupposes

ople sometimes say that they can n

Your quite nice people would have been still nicer had they realized that to talk about one's poverty-though not so bad as talk

sabeth's ton

er and two footmen; but in speaking of her household to a friend, who was less richly endowed with worldly goods than herself, she referred to these three functiona

Elisabeth persisted. "You have told me hundreds of times that I must never show off my knowledge after other people have displayed their ignorance; and tha

rity in having more money than another person: there is not. To hide the difference proved that she thought there was a difference, and this proved that her standpoint was an essentially plebeian one. There was no difference at all,

hampton, on St. Peter's Day, and I have asked Alan Tremaine to drive me over in his dog-cart to hear him." Although she had strayed from the old paths

y dear," said Miss Farringdon, wh

e, and I needn't bother Alan," said Elisabeth, with disappoin

is it, and a

vening sacrifice at East Lane Chapel, and trusting to the power of habit and early association

weekevening service, my dear, with the

late the sudden awakening of

ingdon kindly. "I like young people to learn the faith once delivered to the saints, from all

ernoon, that Alan Tremaine drove Elisabeth Farringdon in

love to her; so with that old, old feminine instinct, which made the prehistoric woman take to her heels when the prehistoric man began to run after

ters' method of dividing time; and although the woods had exchanged the fresh variety of spring for the dark green

the wide common; and as they went they saw and felt that the world was very good. Elisabeth was highly sensitive to the influences of nature, and, le

als so much to me is your strength. The sweetness which attracts some men has no charm for me; I am one of the men who above all things admire and reverence a

t tots and sentences, which embodies that idea," s

de it a rule never to enc

ld serve you right if I turned my horse's head round and refused to let you hear your Bishop

abit, and those who indulge in it always get their fingers burned in the end-just as they

nt's silence, an

d like this; I do not understand it, and it see

rouble to cry over. But now you are making a trouble out of nothing, and I have no patience with people who make troubles out of nothing; it se

s make you ang

gs and som

f people make a woma

said you, she would have snubbed him at once; but the well-chosen words, a woman of your type, completely carried her away. She was no

rom one standpoint they persist in discussing it from another; and as soon as you try to see it from their point of view, they fly off to a third. It isn't so much that they differ from you-that you would not mind; there is a certain har

e cause of which is that you decide things by instinct rather than by reason, an

non-essentials; who, when you have got hold of the vital centre of a question, stray

e said they w

him, you'll find him playing bo-peep with you round the other; and you never can get him into the right mood at the right time. He makes me

nse were naturally more humorous than jokes at his own.

nd if people go against it, I want them to be sent to the dentist's every morning, and to the photographer's every afternoon, for the rest of their lives. Now Christopher is one of the worst of t

y tr

hy it is? I suppose it must be because I have known him for so long. I can't see any other reason. I am generally such an easy-go

rnley certainly ha

ding absolutely necessary to her well-being; but she resented any attempt on the part of another to usurp this, her

ged him for Elisabeth's self. "How loyal you are!" he exclaimed with admir

she said gratefully, unconscious of the fact that it was Alan's lack of understanding and appreciation which had aroused her gratitude

eges and ask you to help me in my life-work; and my life-work, as you know, is to ameliorate t

note of her character. She was too fastidious often to admire; she was too strong ever to fear; but her tenderness was unfailing toward those who had once appealed to her pity, and whose weakness had for once allowed itself to rest upon her strength. Therefore Alan's desire to help the poor, and to make them happier, struck the dominant chord

are as two armies made ready for battle, and the question is, What can we do to bridge over the gulf between the classes, and to induce them ea

ut when you open the door you find the air dark with dust and the floor with tea-leaves, and nothing looking as it ought to look. Prone on its face on the bed, covered with a winding-sheet, lies your overthrown looking-glass; and underneath it, in a shapeless mass, are

ail to follow you. I often think that you must have some foreign blood in your veins, y

made in Germany, like cheap

serious than the English. But you must have a

was a Manxwoman; but we are ashamed to talk much ab

ho work in the coal-pits, and who-more even than the rest of their class-are shut out from the joy and beauty of the world. Their li

I do: twent

You know what I mean well enough, but you wilfully misunderstand my words for the sake of laughing at them. But I will make you listen, all the

, as if it had been wiped out with a sponge

ality attracted me the first moment that I met you; and our subsequent companionship has proved that our minds habit

es

ogmas and thrown aside all recognised forms of religion. So strong were my feelings on this point, that I would not have married any woman who still clung to the worn-out an

e taught me that Christianity, like all the other old religions, has

tian to the joyous vitality of the Greek, eliminating alike the melancholy of t

ow that

ry dearly, Elisabeth, and it would be a great grief to me if any question of opinion or conviction came between us; yet I do not believe that two

she was trembling all over. So she held her peace as they drove up the principal street of Silverhampton and across the King'

which had once made life seem fair, and death even fairer. Although she had outgrown her belief in it, its beauty had still power to touch her heart, if not to convince her intellect; and she sighed as she recalled all that it had once meant, and how it had appeared to be the one satisfactory solution to the problems which weary and perplex mankind. Now she must face all the problems over again in the grim twilight of dawning science, with no longer a Star of Bethlehem to show where the answer might be found; and her spirit quailed at the pitiless prospect. She had never understood before how much that Symbol of eternal love and vicarious suffering had been to her, nor how puzzling would be the path through the wilderness if there were no Crucifix at life's cross-roads to show the traveller which way t

us the Christ until He chooses to reveal Himself. At first Elisabeth listened only with her mind, expecting an intellectual treat and nothing more; but as he went on, and showed how the Call comes in strange places and at strange times, and how when it comes there is no resisting it, her heart began to burn within her; and she recognised the preacher, not only as a man of divers gifts and great powers, but as the ambassador of Christ sent direct to her soul. Then slowly her eyes were opened, and she knew that the Fi

conscious-how she could not explain-that the sunset was different from any other sunset that she had ever seen. She had always loved nature with an intense love; but now there seemed a richer gold in the parting sunbeams-a sweeter mystery behind the far-off hills-because of tha

ng sky. And here again Elisabeth realized that for her the old things had passed away, and all things had become new. She felt that her childish dream was true, and that the crimson light was indeed a pillar of fire showing that the Lord was in the

of castles in the air which you and I are going to inhabit together. But we must not let the old faiths hamper us,

't understand it, but I must say it all the same. In church to-night, for the first time in my life, I heard

ght by the heat, and the excitement of the sermon has been too mu

come quite clear to me-all the things that I have puzzled over since I was a little child;

er again all the old formulas that

things in the world can never be proved by argument. But I want you to understand that the Power which you call Christianity is str

r. "I see; your old association

onging to me. It isn't me at all. It is just His Voice calling me. C

t silence, and t

ought you

is that this new feeling is stronger than any feeling I ever had befo

woman who believes

t marry a man

I don't believe you ever

I shall find a real love some day which will be as different from my friendship for you as this new knowledg

igion fast enough if you had real

eligion-it is my religion that won't give up me. Supposing that a blind man wanted to marry me on condition that I would believe, as he did, that the world is dark: I couldn't believe it, howe

as a fool to imagine that you would prove more intelligent in the

for hurting you,"

pointed in you; you seemed so different from other women

y," Elisabeth

magine. You posed as being so broad and modern and enlightened, and yet

"No; but I have found the C