no terrifying,
no extravagant purpose; but as a man of the world speaking to his
fellow-men. He came to speak to business men and he would speak to them
in a businesslike way. If he might use the metaphor, he said, he was
their spiritual accountant; and he wished each and every one of his
hearers to open his books, the books of his spiritual life, and see if
they tallied accurately with conscience.

Jesus Christ was not a hard taskmaster. He understood our little
failings, understood the weakness of our poor fallen nature, understood
the temptations of this life. We might have had, we all had from time to
time, our temptations: we might have, we all had, our failings. But one
thing only, he said, he would ask of his hearers. And that was: to be
straight and manly with God. If their accounts tallied in every point to
say:

"Well, I have verified my accounts. I find all well."

But if, as might happen, there were some discrepancies, to admit the
truth, to be frank and say like a man:

"Well, I have looked into my accounts. I find this wrong and this wrong.
But, with God's grace, I will rectify this and this. I will set right my
accounts."

THE DEAD

LILY, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly
had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office
on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat than the wheezy
hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare
hallway to let in another guest. It was well for her she had not to
attend to the ladies also. But Miss Kate and Miss Julia had thought
of that and had converted the bathroom upstairs into a ladies'
dressing-room. Miss Kate and Miss Julia were there, gossiping and
laughing and fussing, walking after each other to the head of the
stairs, peering down over the banisters and calling down to Lily to ask
her who had come.

It was always a great affair, the Misses Morkan's annual dance.
Everybody who knew them came to it, members of the family, old friends
of the family, the members of Julia's choir, any of Kate's pupils that
were grown up enough, and even some of Mary Jane's pupils too. Never
once had it fallen flat. For years and years it had gone off in splendid
style, as long as anyone could remember; ever since Kate and Julia,
after the death of their brother Pat, had left the house in Stoney
Batter and taken Mary Jane, their only niece, to live with them in the
dark, gaunt house on Us