"Then I am sorry for you; and I wish I could get at the mill people." "Why?" "To tell them what I know about it." "But you could not get at them, Mrs. Masters. They are in the mills from seven till seven--or eight, and come out tired and dirty; and Sunday, as I told you, they like to stay at home and rest and perhaps clean up." "If there is no help for that," said Diana, "there ought to be no mills." "And no manufacturers?" "What are silk and iron, to the bodies and souls of men? Basil, does that passage in the Revelation mean _that?_" "What passage?" said Mr. Brandt. "Here is a Bible, Mrs. Masters; perhaps you will be so good as to find the place. I am afraid from your expression, it is not a flattering passage for us millowners. What are the words you refer to?" I think he wanted to draw out Diana much more than the meaning of Scripture. She took the Bible a little doubtfully and glanced at Basil. He was smiling at her in a reassuring way, but did not at all offer to help. Diana's thoughts wandered somewhat, and she turned the leaves of the Bible unsuccessfully. "Where is it, Basil?" "You are thinking of the account of the destruction of Babylon. It is in the eighteenth chapter." "But Babylon!" said the host. "We have nothing to do with Babylon. That means Rome, doesn't it?" "Here's the chapter," said Diana. "No, it cannot mean Rome, Mr. Brandt; though Dean Stanley seems to assume that it does, in spite of the fact which he naively points out, that the description don't fit." "What then?" "Basil, won't you explain?" "It is merely an assumption of old Testament imagery," said Basil. "At a time when lineal Israel stood for the church of God upon earth, Babylon represented the head and culmination of the world-power, the church's deadly opponent and foe. Babylon in the Apocalypse but means that of which Nebuchadnezzar's old Babylon was the type." "And what is that?" "The power of this world, of which Satan is said to be the prince." "But what do you mean by the _world_, Mr. Masters? We cannot get out of the world--it is a pretty good world, too, I think, take it for all in all. People talk of being worldly and not worldly;--but they do not know what they are talking about." "Why not?" Diana asked. "Well, now, ask my wife," Mr. Brandt answered, laughing. "She thinks it is 'worldly' to have a cockade on your coachman's hat; it is not worldly to have the coachman, or the carriage, and she don't object to a coat with buttons. Then it is not worldly to give a party,--but it is worldly to dance; it is very worldly to play cards. There's hair-splitting somewhere, and my eyes are not sharp enough to see the lines." Diana sat with her book in her hand, looking up at the speaker; a look so fair and clear and grave that Mr. Brandt was again moved by curiosity, and tempted to try to make her speak. "Can _you_ make it out?" he said, smiling.