“Sweetly thought and sweetly said, my Mother!” answered Dimitrius. “But, believe me, I can say ‘Our Father’ with a more perfect and exalted faith now than I did when I was a child at your knee. And why? Because I know surely that there is ‘Our Father’ which is in Heaven!--and because He permits us to use reason, judgment and a sane comprehension of Nature, even so I seek to learn what I am confident He wishes us to know!” “At all risks?” his mother hinted, in a low tone. “At all risks!” he answered. “A political government risks millions of human lives to settle a temporary national dispute--I risk _one_ life to make millions happier! And”--here he looked steadily at Diana with a certain grave kindness in his eyes--“she is brave enough to take the risk!” Diana met his look with equal steadiness. “I do not even think about it!” she said--“It does not seem worth while!” CHAPTER XVIII The strange spirit of complete indifference, and the attitude of finding nothing, apparently, worth the trouble of thinking about, stood Diana in such good stead, that she found no unpleasantness or restriction in being more or less a prisoner in her own rooms on her return to the Château Fragonard. The lovely house was thrown open to the usual callers and neighbours,--people came and went,--the gardens, glorious now with a wealth of blossom, were the favourite resort of many visitors to Madame Dimitrius and her son,--and Diana, looking from her pretty _salon_ through one of the windows which had so deep an embrasure that she could see everything without any fear of herself being discovered, often watched groups of men and smartly attired women strolling over the velvety lawns or down the carefully kept paths among the flowers, though always with a curious lack of interest. They seemed to have no connection with her own existence. True to his promise, Dr. Dimitrius came every day to take her out when no other persons were in the house or grounds,--and these walks were a vague source of pleasure to her, though she felt she would have been happier and more at ease had she been allowed to take them quite alone. Madame Dimitrius was unwearying in her affectionate regard and attention, and always spent the greater part of each day with her, displaying a tenderness and consideration for her which six months previously would have moved her to passionate gratitude, but which now only stirred in her mind a faint sense of surprise. All her sensations were as of one, who, by some mysterious means, had been removed from the comprehension of human contact,--though her intimacy with what the world is pleased to consider the non-reasoning things of creation had become keenly intensified, and more closely sympathetic.