"But," said the girl, stung to resistance, "it has not been a question of my carving out a line for myself. It has really been with me a choice between following my mother and following you. And I do not know why I chose to follow you. My mother never led me astray." "You had better go," said Adin, "and I will look for another friend who is bolder and more courageous, and who is not always thinking about uncomfortable things like you are. Besides I have come to the conclusion that I have made a mistake about myself all my life. The views you love are cramping. I like to be free. I am much more suited to the Land of Indifference than to the Radiant City. And I really doubt if I have ever been on the way there. I have just followed my mother, that is all." "Then," said Iddo, "you mean to stay here? and to give up all thoughts of the King and the Radiant City?" "How do you know there is a King and a Radiant City?" said Adin. "The enemy must be very near to make you say that," said Iddo gravely. "Oh, don't give way to him. I am quite sure he is seeking your ruin." "The enemy! Nonsense, child! Why, I find no one believes in the Devil now. The very mention of him raises a smile. Indeed, if you spoke to the inhabitants of this land as you are speaking to me, they would think you were daft. No one who has any learning ever thinks of him. He is a myth." "Have you learnt all this while you have been here?" said Iddo, sadly. "Yes, and a great deal more; much that convinces me that it is quite mad to give up the pleasure of this place for the dream that you are following." "Then," said Iddo, "this shows me how wrong I have been to have come here at all. If they say such things in this land it is no place for a servant of the King," and there was a firmness in her tone of voice and a look of resolute determination in her eyes, which Adin had never thought to see in her timid little friend. She liked her all the better for it. "Put your scruples away," she urged, "and let us enjoy ourselves. I shall miss you if you go." "It is so hard to leave you in this town," said Iddo, with tears in her eyes, "if only you would come too. Think what it will be to be shut out of the Radiant City at last!" "There you are again! In such dead earnest! They are quite right here when they say that people who are on the way to the Radiant City are so terribly tiring. They will not take things as they find them or leave people as they find them, but will always be trying to save them from what they look upon as their doom. Why not let people believe what they like? So long as they are happy, why disturb them?" "Of course you feel like that if you don't believe in anything strongly," answered Iddo, "but when you are sure that there is a Radiant City, and that those who will not listen to the Voice of the King inviting them there, will be shut out at last, it makes all the difference."