hed even by those who would heal them. And when
we uproot we must be careful to replant under more favourable
conditions; when we demolish we should be prepared to rebuild, or no
comfort will come of the changes. These things take time, and are best
done deliberately, and even then the most cautious make their
mistakes. But, still, I believe that the force which is carrying us
along is the force that makes for righteousness. We women have in our
minds now what will culminate in the recognition by future generations
of the beauty of goodness. Woman is to be the mother of God in Man."

Beth's heart swelled at the words. This attitude was new to her; and
yet all that was said she seemed to have heard before, and known from
the first. And she knew more also, away back in that region beyond
time and space to which she had access, and where she found herself at
happy moments transported by an impulse outside herself, which she
could not control by any effort of will. That day, with those new
friends, she felt like one who returns to a happy home after weary
wanderings, and is warmly welcomed. A great calm settled upon her
spirit. She said little the whole time, but sat, sure of their
sympathetic tolerance, and listened to them with that living light of
interest in her eyes to which the heart responds with confidence more
surely than to any spoken word. The evil influences which had held her
tense at Slane had no power to trouble her here. She was high enough
above Dan and Bertha to look down upon them dispassionately, knowing
them for what they were, yet personally unaffected by their turpitude.
It was as if she had heard of some bad deed, and knew it to be
repulsive, a thing intolerable, meriting punishment; yet, because it
did not concern her, it had lapsed from her thoughts like a casual
paragraph read in a paper which had not brought home to her any
realisation of what it recorded.

During the afternoon her mind was stored with serene impressions--service
in the venerable Cathedral; the fluting of an anthem by a boy with a
birdlike voice; some strong words from the pulpit, not on the dry bones
of doctrine, nor the doings of a barbarous people led by a vengeful
demon of perplexing attributes whom they worshipped as a deity, but on
the conduct of life--a vital subject. Then, as they drove through the
beautiful old city, there came impressions of grey and green; grey
gateways, ancient buildings, ivy, and old trees, and, ove