"We have Faith, man. Faith goes below creeds, straight to the impassioned human hopes out of which creeds have grown. Faith in spiritual matters is just what courage is in material life. _My word, Ian!_ if you had only Faith, you would see some good in every creed." "Well, then, all creeds claim to come from the Bible." "There is no such thing as a creed or a system of Divinity in the Book--nothing in it but human relations touched by the Spirit of God." "I am glad, however, to hear of Donald's good fortune." "It is wonderful. Every good gift of life put into his hand unsought. A beautiful and wealthy wife, who loved him from the moment they met, and a father-in-law who treats him already as a dearly beloved son." "Donald is not his son, however, and never can be. I am forever and ever Donald Macrae's father." "A splendid home, a large and prosperous business, and the finest climate outside of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is like a fairy tale," continued the Major enthusiastically. Ian smiled, and said slowly, as if he could hardly remember the words he wished to say, "You are right, 'It sounds like stories from the Land of Spirits, If any one attain the thing he merits, Or any merit that which he obtains.' I am glad to have heard such a romance." "Marion, or Mrs. Caird, could have told it to you, chapter by chapter, as it was making." "And with what advices and entreaties!" "Words only. I never mind words. Ian, you are looking ill. What is the matter with you? Is it the loss of that woman?" "The Duchess of Rotherham? No. I never allow myself to think of her. It is a loss so transcendantly greater that there is not speech to define the distance. _I have lost God!_" and he looked up with a face of such desperate sorrow and patience as infected the heart of the older man with uncontrollable pity. "O Ian! Ian!" he answered in a low, intense voice, "you cannot lose God, and, if you could, He cannot lose you." "My father's brother![1] I have lost God, and the Devil----" [Footnote 1: Among Highlanders the name of the relationship expresses more emotion than the baptismal name.] "Stop now. I disclaim for you and for myself all interest in the devil. I deny him! I deny him! _Ach!_ I will not talk of him. If there be a devil, he can talk for himself." "My God has left me. I know not where to find Him. I watch the day and the night through for a whisper or a sign from Him. 'As the hart panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul for the living God.' To all my pleading He is deaf and dumb. My heart would break, but He has made it so hard that sometimes I can only pray for tears, lest I die of my soul's thirst." "But this is dreadful, Ian, dreadful! Dear me! Dear me! What can I do?" "What do you do when, through faults all your own, you have lost the sense of God's loving presence?"