"I have been thinking of what you said." He was lying on the sofa, smoking, but got up to make room for her; he was glad she came in. She, however, remained standing. "Is the boy to believe a thing because you say it, even if it be untrue?" "No; but then you could leave it to me to correct the error." "Are you quite sure that you would do so?" "Pray, what do you mean by that?" "Only that you continually teach him things that you yourself cannot possibly believe." "What are you driving at?" He got very red; for he felt that this was the beginning of an explanation. "I have often thought of speaking to you of this," she said, "and now the right moment has come. You surely don't believe that the world was created as it is now in six days, six thousand years ago, and that the story of the first man and woman, and the patriarchs is anything but a tradition? Likewise everything about Paradise. The world and human beings cannot have begun by being perfect. But this is what you teach the children, and of late even Edward." He now walked up and down the room; she stood in the doorway between the room and the passage. Every time he approached her he gave her a decided, yes, even a look full of power; this was not the look of an evil conscience, she felt that. To show her in what spirit he wished to act, he stopped and said, quietly: "Shan't we sit down, Josephine?" "No," answered she, "I did not come to stay." "What you call a tradition," he said, "is the everlasting truth that God created everything and everyone, and that sin is a falling away from Him." "Why not teach them in this wise, instead of by untrue pictures?" "Children understand pictures best, Josephine." "Then tell them that it is only a fairy tale." "That's of no consequence." "It is of the greatest consequence that children should not learn everlasting truths in an untrue form--at least, so I think." He saw that she was working herself up into a state of excitement, and reproved her for it; surely they ought to be able to talk together without that. "No," she said, "I cannot; for you must know that not only our boy's future, but yours and mine too, depend on this." She went up to the desk to be nearer to him, maybe too she needed support.