'I do not understand you,' said his mother, with an air both vexed and anxious; while Miss Frere had now let her embroidery fall, and was giving her best consideration to the subject and the speaker. She was a little annoyed too, but she was more interested. This was a different sort of conversation from any she had been accustomed to hear, and Pitt was a different sort of speaker. He was not talking to kill time, or to please her; he was--most wonderful and rare!--in earnest; and that not in any matter that involved material interests. She had seen people in earnest before on matters of speculation and philosophy, often on stocks and schemes for making money, in earnest violently on questions of party politics; but in earnest for the truth's sake, never, in all her life. It was a new experience, and Pitt was a novel kind of person; manly, straightforward, honest; quite a person to be admired, to be respected, to be-- Where were her thoughts running? He had sat silent a moment, after his mother's last remark; gravely thinking. Betty brought him back to the point. 'You will tell us what you think "following" means?' she said gently. 'I will tell _you_,' he said, smiling. 'I am not supposed to be speaking to mamma. If you will look at the way Christ went, you will see what following Him must be. In the first place, Self was nowhere.' 'Yes,' said Miss Frere. 'Who is ready to follow Him in that?' 'But, my dear boy!' cried Mrs. Dallas. 'We are human creatures; we cannot help thinking of ourselves; we are _meant_ to think of ourselves. Everybody must think of self; or the world would not hold together.' 'I am speaking to Miss Frere,' he said pleasantly. 'I confess I think so too, Mr. Dallas. Of course, we ought not to be _selfish;_ that means, I suppose, to think of self unduly; but where would the world be, if everybody, as you say, put self nowhere?' 'I will go on to another point. Christ went about doing good. It was the one business of His life. Whenever and wherever He went among men, He went to heal, to help, to teach, or to warn. Even when He was resting among friends in the little household at Bethany, He was teaching, and one of the household at least sat at His feet to listen.' 'Yes, and left her sister to do all the work,' remarked Mrs. Dallas. 'The Lord said she had done right, mamma.' There ensued a curious silence. The two ladies sat looking at Pitt, each apparently possessed by a kind of troubled dismay; neither ready with an answer. The pause lasted till both of them felt what it implied, and both began to speak at once. 'But, my son'-- 'But, Mr. Dallas!'-- 'Miss Frere, mamma. Let her speak.' And turning to the young lady with a slight bow, he intimated his willingness to hear her. Miss Frere was nevertheless not very ready.