"Let me explain, Jessy. The late Lord Cramer during his long illness read all these questioning, doubting books, and he wrote many refutations of their errors, or at least he believed them to be refutations. I have promised Lady Cramer to examine the papers, and prepare them for publication." "Ian, do not do it. I entreat you to decline the whole business." "You are unreasonable, Jessy." "These men of the Critical School are intellectual giants. Are you strong enough to wrestle with them and not be overcome?" "Not unless I comprehend them. Therefore, I must read what they say." "What matters comprehension if you have Faith?" "I have Faith, and I can trust my Faith. I know what I preach. My creed is reasonable and I believe it. I am no flounderer in unknown seas." Nor was he. Ian Macrae was surely at this period of his life an upright soul. All his beliefs were fixed, and he was sure that he understood God perfectly. So he looked kindly into the pleasant, anxious face before him, and continued: "I have not a doubt. I never had a doubt. I wish I was sure of everything concerning my life as I am of my creed. In my Bible, the blessed book from which I studied at St. Andrews, I have written these lines of an old poet, called Crawshaw: "'Think not the Faith by which the just shall live Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven, Far less a feeling fond and fugitive-- It is an affirmation, and an act, That bids eternal truth be present fact.'" "We do not know ourselves, Ian; however, we do know that the Christ who carries our sins can carry our doubts. And no one is sure of what will happen in their life. What is troubling you in particular?" "Donald--and Marion." "Marion! The dear child! She has never given you a heartache in all her life." "She gave me one this afternoon." "Because she was happy. Ian, you are most unreasonable." "I am afraid of Lord Cramer. He would have made love to her this afternoon----" "I will suppose you are right and then ask, what wrong there would have been in it?" "More than I can explain. For seven years he was in a fast cavalry regiment, and he kept its pace even to the embarrassing of the Cramer estate. He had reached the limit of his father's indulgence three years ago. His stepmother has been loaning him money ever since, and he is in honor bound to repay her as soon as possible. That duty comes before his marriage, unless he marries a rich woman. My daughter would be a most unwelcome daughter to Lady Cramer, and I will not have Marion put in such a position. Dislike spreads quickly, and from the mother to the son might well be an easy road. There is something else also----" "Pray let me hear the whole list of the young man's sins." "He is deeply influenced by the 'isms' of the day, and, though brought up strictly in the true church, Lady Cramer fears he never goes there; for she cannot get him to spend a Sabbath at home."