bout all his phases."

"The best of all things! What were your Luthers, your Cromwells, and
St. Francis?" Meg paused. Her voice fell. "And Our Lord? Weren't
they enthusiasts? Did they take things moderately? Does moderation
ever achieve anything? Napoleon said no country was ever conquered by
half methods."

"Mike's enthusiasm is only theoretical. If he has done this thing, his
new religion allows him too much latitude. He'd much better have stuck
to our plain ancestor-worship."

"But he hasn't done it! You know he hasn't. Don't go over it again.
That detestable woman met him and trapped him."

"And tempted him? The old, old story--the world's first romance--'the
woman tempted me and I fell.'"

Meg's tears had dried very quickly. She was strong again. "I don't
see how you can speak like that. You told me that Michael was straight
as a die--you know you did."

"But I said he was weak--I told you that, too, didn't I?"

"If being human is weak, then I suppose he is. I never met a man who
was a saint. And if believing that we are all more good than bad is
weak, then I admit his lack of strength. It is his humility that makes
it impossible for him to think evil of anyone. I have often proved it.
Almost any man is a better man than himself in his own eyes."

"Bosh!" Freddy said. "I do wish he was more ordinary, less of a crank
about these things! How can he think he isn't as good a man as that
fair-tongued, lying Mohammed Ali, for instance, or any of these lying
sensualists? It's the ugliest of all prides, the one that apes
humility, Meg. Lots of religious enthusiasts have it."

"No, not with Michael. He thinks he is less good than they are because
he is perfectly conscious of God, as he expresses it. He enjoys all
the privileges of a close connection with God; he doesn't only pray to
Him, as we do. He lives with him; Mike is never alone. And yet, with
all that sense of God, he is full of faults and failings. These men
and women, who to us appear so bad, are simply further back in their
evolution. They can't be bad, if it is not their fault. They have not
had the same privileges, they are only gradually evolving. Spiritually
they are like the dwellers in the slums as compared with the inmates of
the beautifully-appointed hygienic house in the country. Michael is in
the light; these poor souls are in darkness. It is all a part of the
Great Law."

Freddy had finished his tea. It ha