our deity I
know nothing of."

"Call Him what you please: _He_ won't be put off so easily."

"He won't be put off, one jot or one tittle. He will forgive anything,
but He will pass nothing. Will your wife forgive you?"

"She will, when I explain."

"Then why should you think the forgiveness of God, which created her
forgiveness, should be less?"

Whether the marquis could grasp the reasoning may be doubtful.

"Do you really suppose God cares whether a man comes to good or ill?"

"If He did not, He could not be good Himself."

"Then you don't think a good God would care to punish poor wretches
like us?"

"Your lordship has not been in the habit of regarding himself as
a poor wretch. And, remember, you can't call a child a poor wretch
without insulting the father of it."

"That's quite another thing."

"But on the wrong side for your argument, seeing the relation between
God and the poorest creature is infinitely closer than that between
any father and his child."

"Then He can't be so hard on him as the parsons say."

"He will give him absolute justice, which is the only good thing. He
will spare nothing to bring his children back to Himself, their sole
well-being. What would you do, my lord, if you saw your son strike a
woman?"

"Knock him down and horsewhip him."

It was Mr. Graham who broke the silence that followed: "Are you
satisfied with yourself, my lord?"

"No, by God!"

"You would like to be better?"

"I would."

"Then you are of the same mind with God."

"Yes, but I'm not a fool. It won't do to say I should like to be. I
must be it, and that's not so easy. It's damned hard to be good. I
would have a fight for it, but there's no time. How is a poor devil to
get out of such an infernal scrape?"

"Keep the commandments."

"That's it, of course; but there's no time, I tell you--no time; at
least, so those cursed doctors will keep telling me."

"If there were but time to draw another breath, there would be time to
begin."

"How am I to begin? Which am I to begin with?"

"There is one commandment which includes all the rest."

"Which is that?"

"To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."

"That's cant."

"After thirty years' trial of it, it is to me the essence of wisdom.
It has given me a peace which makes life or death all but indifferent
to me, though I would choose the latter."

"What am I to believe about Him, then?"

"You are to believe _in_ Him, not about Him."

"I don'