"Yes; I mean to. I only wanted you to understand how, one by one, emotions and desires have been killed in me during the last four years.... And even the desire for wealth and position--which I clung to up to yesterday--somehow, now--this morning--has become little more than a dreamy wish.... I'd rather have quiet if I could--if there's enough money left to let me rest somewhere----" "There will be," said Molly, watching her. "Do you think so? And--then there would be no necessity for--for----" "Langly!" Strelsa flushed. "I wonder," she mused. "I wonder whether--but it seems impossible that I should suddenly find I didn't care for everything I cared for this winter. Perhaps I'm too tired to care just now." "It might be," said Molly, "that something--for example your friendship with Rix--had made other matters seem less important." The girl looked up quickly, saw nothing in Molly's expression to disturb her, then turned her eyes away, and lay silent, considering. If her friendship for Quarren had imperceptibly filled her mind, even crowding aside other and most important matters, she did not realise it. She thought of it now, and of him--recalling the letter she had written. Vaguely she was aware of the difference in her attitude toward life since she wrote that letter only a few days before. To what was it due? To his letter in reply now lying between the leaves of her New Testament on the table beside her? This was his letter: "Hold out, Strelsa! Matters are going well with me. Your tide, too, will turn before you know it. But neither man nor woman is going to aid you, only time, Strelsa, and--something that neither you nor I have bothered about very much--something that has many names in many tongues--but they all mean the same. And the symbol of what they mean is Truth. "Why not study it? We never have. All sages of all times have studied it and found comfort; all saints in all ages have found in it strength. "I find its traces in every ancient picture that I touch. But there are books still older that have lived because of it. And one man died for it--man or God as you will--the former is more fashionable. "Lives that have been lived because of it, given for it, forgiven for its sake, are worth our casual study. "For they say there is no greater thing than Truth. I can imagine no greater. And the search for it is interesting--fascinating--I had no idea how absorbing until recently--until I first saw you, who sent me out into the world to work. "Hold out--and study this curious subject of Truth for a little while. Will you?