"It is the second evening, amidst the most unlikely surroundings, that you have made me speculate about subjects which never troubled me before. Then you leave me unsatisfied--I want to know--definitely to know!" "Searcher after wisdom!" and he smiled. "No one can teach another very much. Enlightenment must come from within; we have reached a better stage when we realise that we are units in some vast scheme and responsible for its working, and not only atoms floating hither and thither by chance. Most people have the brains of grasshoppers; they spring from subject to subject, their thoughts are never under control. Their thoughts rule them--it is not they who rule their thoughts." They were seated comfortably on their sofa, and Verisschenzko leaning forward from his corner, looked straight into her eyes. "You control your thoughts?" she asked. "Can you really only let them wander where you choose?" "They very seldom escape me, but I consciously allow them indulgences." "Such as?" "Visions--day dreams--which I know ought not to materialise." Something disturbed her in his regard; it was not easy to meet, so full of magnetic emanation. Amaryllis was conscious that she no longer felt very calm--she longed to know What his dreams could be. "Yes--but if I told you, you would send me away." It seemed that he could read her desire. "I shall order myself to be gone presently, because the interest which you cause me to feel would interfere with work which I have to do." "And your dreams? Tell them first?" she knew that she was playing with fire. He looked down now, and she saw that he was not going to gratify her curiosity. "My noblest dream is for the regeneration of a nation--on that I have ordered my thoughts to dwell. For the others, the time is not yet for me to tell you of them--it may never come. Now answer me, have you yet seen your new home, Ardayre?" "No, but why should you be interested in that? It seems strange that you, a Russian, should even know that there is such a place as Ardayre!" "Continue--I know that it is a wonderful place, and that your husband loves it more than his life." Amaryllis pouted slightly. "He does indeed! Perhaps I shall grow to do so also when I know it; it is the family creed. Sir James--my late father-in-law--was the only exception to this rule." "You must uphold the idea then, and live to do fine things." "I will try--if only--" then she paused, she could not say "if only John would be human and unfreeze to me, and love me, and let us go on the road together hand in hand!" "It is quite useless for a family merely to continue from generation to generation piling up possessions, and narrowing its interests. It must do this for a time to become solid, and then it should take a vaster view, and begin to help the world. Nearly everything is spoiled in all civilisation because of this inability to see beyond the nose, this poor and paltry outlook."