"Because it doesn't promise them good food, and fine clothes, and plenty of leisure."
"But it gives them the promise of an eternity of happiness."
"Eternity is too far away for them. They want their good things in this life. They want to live their lives as they will, to go and come as they choose, to be free from rules that bind them, from laws that oppress them, from customs that restrain them. I, myself, have taught them that that is their right as human beings."
"And have you taught them wisely?"
"I don't know. Oh, I don't know! Who can say what is wise, or right, or good? Surely not I; not I!"
She began to wring her hands in apparent self-reproach. She seemed so distraught that he pitied her. Her face was expressive of an agony that he could but dimly understand.
"God forgive us," he said, "if we have both been wrong. But you came to see me on some special errand. Pardon me for interjecting my own troubles. They seem to me to be mountains high to-night. Perhaps yours are even greater. How can I help you?"
"Oh, I had almost forgotten. I came to warn you. You are in danger."
"What kind of danger is it now?"
"A man has threatened to kill you."
"I am not surprised. Some of those whom I have tried to befriend have turned against me very bitterly."
"But this man has a special grievance."
"Who is he?"
"Stephen Lamar."
"What is his special grievance?"
"He is" She hesitated.
"He is what, Mrs. Bradley?"
"He is jealous of you."
"On whose account?"
"On mine."
"Why should he be jealous of me? Is it not Barry
