"Why, yes!" said Diana; "but there is no hair-splitting. It is very simple. There are just two kingdoms in the world, Mr. Brandt; and whatever does not belong to the one, belongs to the other. Whatever is not for God, is for the world." "Then your definition of the 'world' is?"-- "All that is not God's." "But I am not clear yet. I don't see how you draw the line. Take my mills, for example; they belong to this profane, work-a-day world; yet I must run them. Is that worldly?" "Yes, if you do not run them for God." Mr. Brandt stared a little. "I confess I do not see how that is to be done," he owned. "The business that you cannot do for God, you had better not do at all," said Diana gently. "But spinning cotton?"-- "Spinning cotton, or anything else that employs men and makes money." "How?" "You can do it for God, cannot you?" said Diana in the same way. "You can employ the men and make the money for his sake, and in his service." "But that is coming pretty close," said the millowner. "Suppose I want a little of the money for myself and my family?" "I am speaking too much!" said Diana, with a lovely flush on her cheek, and looking up to her husband. "I wish you would take the word, Basil." "I hope Mr. Masters is going to be a little more merciful to the weaknesses of ordinary humanity," said Mr. Brandt, half lightly. "So tremendous a preacher have I never heard yet." Basil was silent, and Diana looked down at the volume in her hand. "Won't you go on, Mrs. Masters?" said her host. "What do you find for me there?" "I was looking for my quotation," said Diana; "I had not got it quite right." "How is it?" "Here is a list of the luxuries in which Babylon traded:--'The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, _and slaves_, _and souls of men_.'" "Sounds for all the world like an inventory of the things in my house," said Mr. Brandt. "Pray what of all that? Don't you like all those things?" "'--For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.'" "But what harm in these things, or most of them, Mrs. Masters?" Diana glanced up at Basil and did not answer. He answered. "No harm--so long as business and the fruits of business are kept within the line we were speaking of; so long as all is for God and to God. If it is not for him, it is for the 'world.'" "O my dear Mrs. Masters!" cried Mrs. Brandt, running in,--"here you are. I was looking for you.--I came to ask--shall I order the landau for five o'clock, to drive to the lake?"