"Oh, I don't mean that! I mean something much more intimate, much more important." This brought him face to face with himself and the decision over which he had agonized for so long, and for an instant he hesitated, then took the plunge bravely. "I love your daughter, Mrs. Lambert, and I want your permission to tell her so." She drew back into her chair with a gasp of surprise and a look of alarm. "Oh, I didn't understand! I thought you meant--I don't know--I--" She was utterly at a loss for words, but he understood her. "Your hesitation is not flattering to me. I hope you don't absolutely distrust me." Her embarrassment was pitiful. "Oh no, indeed! But you are a sceptic. You don't believe in us--in her." "Oh yes, I do!" "And, besides, she has been promised for two years to Tony--Mr. Clarke." He grew a little hard at mention of the preacher's name. "But she fears and hates Clarke. She has broken with him. She told my sister that she was done with him forever. You will not ask her to marry a man she distrusts?" She flew to Clarke's defence. "That was only a mood, a lover's quarrel. He was all upset by Pratt and--and other things. I will not allow her to desert him when he is in trouble. He has been so much to us, and he is a noble character in spite of all." "All this is very disturbing to me," he answered, more humorously than he felt. "But, nevertheless, I also claim to be a noble character." She began once more to realize his place in the world and his kindness to Viola. "I know that, professor, I fully recognize the honor you do her and me, but she is not like other girls. She is set aside to do God's work, and ought not to marry at all. That is why the 'guides' have given her to Anthony; he, too, is consecrated." "Dear Mrs. Lambert, you shock me when you say such things. I don't believe it is your daughter's duty to convert people to a belief in immortality. I don't believe in teaching men and women to depend upon an unseen world for guidance; and especially do I despise any faith which makes this life less important than some other just beyond. I love this life, and do not intend to trouble myself about what lies beyond the grave. That is really not my concern. To regard this world as a vale of tears leading to a shining heaven is a species of mediævalism from which I revolt." She caught this up. "That is just the reason why Viola would be unhappy with a sceptic." "But I am not a sceptic. I have the greatest faith. I am certain I can make her happy here and now. You surely would not permit her to go back to Anthony Clarke!" She was troubled and confused. "I don't know. Perhaps it would be best, after all. A great deal of her 'power' comes from him." She brightened. "But I will leave all that to father."