"I will tell you frankly. I had two motives for my conduct. In the first place I believed, and still believe, that I was acting for the best interests of Christ Church. In the second place it is my desire to secure Mr. Farrar's removal from this community so that you shall be outside the sphere of his influence."
"Why do you wish that?"
She did not seem to be surprised or vexed at the outspoken declaration of his purpose.
"Because," he replied, "I want to give you an opportunity to be restored to mental health; and I want to give myself an opportunity to regain so much of your confidence and affection as I have already lost."
"If it were true that you had lost them, Philip, would it not be your own fault?"
"No. I place the blame wholly on this man who has influenced you to my detriment."
"You misjudge him, Philip, and you misunderstand me. I have not been overpersuaded, and I am not abnormal. If it were true that I have lost my mental balance, and if you wanted to restore it, you have gone about it in quite the wrong way. To attempt to shatter a cause on which my heart is set, and to initiate a movement to discredit and disgrace the bravest and most high-souled and far-seeing man that ever preached the gospel of Christ from any pulpit in this city; that is not the way to quiet my mind, or to retain my confidence and affection."
She said it with determination, but not in anger, for her eyes were moist and her lip was trembling.
He, man that he was, was not able to hold himself in quite so complete control.
"Listen, Ruth!" he exclaimed. "This man who is now your ideal will some day be shattered into his original elements. Of this I have no doubt. If he will then remake himself on sound principles, there will still be in him vast possibilities for good. As it is, he is a menace to the Church and a destroyer of human
