Rising, she went to a window, leaning against it as if tired, and looking out into the darkness. "But what can you do, all by yourself?" "Very little; but a little is something. It isn’t altogether the success or the failure that I’m thinking about; it’s the principle." "Oh, if you’re going to live by principles—" "We’ve got to live by something. When the world is coming down about our heads." "If it’s doing that, one man can’t hold it up." "No; but a good many men may. I’m not the only one who’s trying." "I never heard of any one trying it like that ... by going back to the foundational, as you call it." "Oh, I think you have. The Man who more than any other has helped the human race did just that thing. You’re strict about going to church on Sunday." She was slightly shocked. "I presume you’re not going to try to be like Him." "Perhaps not. I may not aim so high. I’m only pointing out the fact that going back to the foundational and beginning there again was His method. Others have followed it, a good many. All the work connected with what we call Settlements—" "I never could bear them." "Possibly; but that isn’t the point. I’m only saying that in their way settlement workers have been feeling out the special weakness of our civilization, and doing their best to meet it. I suppose our politicians and clergymen and economists have been doing the same. The trouble with them is that they so generally nip the symptom while leaving the root of the disease that they don’t accomplish much." "Did you accomplish much yourself when you were—?" "I didn’t try. I didn’t see what I was there for. It’s only since coming back here that I’ve begun to understand why I was led the way I was." Half turning round, she said over her shoulder: "Do you call that being led?" I replied with a distinctness which I tried to make significant: "Yes, Vio; I call it being led. I didn’t see it till I got back here; and even here I didn’t see it till—till this afternoon. And now—now I’ve done with all this. I’ve done with the easy, gentlemanly life of spending money and being waited on. I’m not saying it isn’t all right; it’s only not all right for me. I’ve got something else to do. There was a time, you know it as well as I do, when a poor man was an offense to me, and an uncultivated person an abhorrence. I was a snob from every point of view, and I was proud of being one. And now—" Pulling down the shade and turning completely round, she stood with her back to the window. "Yes, Billy? And now?" "It’s no use. I can’t tell you. I couldn’t explain if I used up all the words in the dictionary. It’s just a tugging in my heart to get back where—" I had a sudden inspiration. "Read that," I said, taking Pelly’s letter from my pocket. She stood under the central bunch of electrics while I closed the suit-case and fastened the straps. Having finished the letter, she handed it back to me. "Well?" I asked.