"Why, Isabelle, just think of the strain night after night! You wouldn't like it, I know. I want Mamma to get a paid nurse, but Louis won't have any one near him but Evadne." "Of course _I_ could not stand being broken of my rest," rejoined Isabelle, "it is hard enough for me to get any under the most favorable circumstances, but probably Evadne sleeps like a log in the daytime. It is the least return she can make for having disgraced the family, to be of some use in it now." Marion laughed incredulously. "I should never think of associating Evadne's name with disgrace," she said. "What _do_ you mean, Isabelle?" "Mamma says this nursing fad of hers upset Papa completely. He said the Hildreth honor had better not be mentioned any more." "Well, I don't know. It seems to me she is of a good deal more value to him now than the Hildreth honor. Dr. Russe says she is one of the best nurses he ever saw. That is a high compliment, for he is dreadfully particular. It is my opinion, Isabelle, that Louis is a good deal worse than we think him to be. Don't mention it to Mamma, for she is so nervous, but I heard Dr. Russo talking to Papa in the hall this morning, something about an inherited tendency and a derangement of the nervous system. I could not understand--he spoke so low--but Papa looked dreadfully worried after he had gone. "Don't you think Papa looks very badly, Isabelle? And he seems so absent, as if he had something on his mind. I noticed it long before this happened." Isabelle laughed carelessly. "What a girl you are, Marion! You are always imagining things about people. For my part I have too many worries of my own." Upstairs Evadne was saying wistfully, "Don't you think your life should be very precious, Louis, now that two people have died?" "Two people, Evadne? I know there was good old Pompey,--the thought of that haunts me night and day,--but who else do you mean?" "Jesus Christ." "Oh!" "Do you never think about him, Louis?" "My dear coz, I find it wiser not to think. Every other man you meet holds a different creed, and each one thinks his is the right one. Why should I set myself up as knowing better than other people? The only way is to have a sort of nebulous faith. God will not expect too much of us, if we do the best we can." "A 'nebulous faith' will not save you, Louis," Evadne answered sadly. "God expects us to believe his word when he tells us that he has opened a way for us into the Holiest by the blood of his Son." "That atonement theory is an uncanny doctrine." "It is the only way by which sinners can be made 'at one' with an absolutely holy God. Jesus said 'And I if I be lifted up ... will draw all men unto me.' His humanitarianism did not win the hearts of the multitude. The very men he had fed and healed hounded him _on to his cross_." "It is not philosophical." "I read this morning that 'the moving energy in the world's history to-day is not a philosophy, but a cross.'"