They did so. He staggered to the road-side, and leaned against the bank. "What's been the row?" he asked. "Oh, I remember!--Well, you've had the best of it!" He held out his hand in a vague sort of way, and the gesture invaded their soft hearts. Each took the hand. "I was all right about the girl though," said Sercombe. "I didn't mean her any harm." "I don't think you did," answered Alister; "and I am sure you could have done her none; but the girl did not like it." "There is not a girl of the clan, or in the neighbourhood, for whom my brother would not have done the same." said Ian. "You're a brace of woodcocks!" cried Sercombe. "It's well you're not out in the world. You would be in hot water from morning to night! I can't think how the devil you get on at all!" "Get on! Where?" asked Ian with a smile. "Come now! You ain't such fools as you want to look! A man must make a place for himself somehow in the world!" He rose, and they walked in the direction of the cottage. "There is a better thing than that," said Ian! "What?" "To get clean out of it." "What! cut your throats?" "I meant that to get out of the world clean was better than to get on in it." "I don't understand you. I don't choose to think the man that thrashed me a downright idiot!" growled Sercombe. "What you call getting on," rejoined Ian, "we count not worth a thought. Look at our clan! it is a type of the world itself. Everything is passing away. We believe in the kingdom of heaven." "Come, come! fellows like you must know well enough that's all bosh! Nobody nowadays--nobody with any brains--believes such rot!" "We believe in Jesus Christ," said Ian, "and are determined to do what he will have us do, and take our orders from nobody else." "I don't understand you!" "I know you don't. You cannot until you set about changing your whole way of life." "Oh, be damned! what an idea! a sneaking, impossible idea!" "As to its being an impossible idea, we hold it, and live by it. How absurd it must seem to you, I know perfectly. But we don't live in your world, and you do not even see the lights of ours." "'There is a world beyond the stars'!--Well, there may be; I know nothing about it; I only know there is one on this side of them,--a very decent sort of world too! I mean to make the best of it." "And have not begun yet!" "Indeed I have! I deny myself nothing. I live as I was made to live." "If you were not made to obey your conscience or despise yourself, you are differently made from us, and no communication is possible between us. We must wait until what differences a man from a beast make its appearance in you." "You are polite!" "You have spoken of us as you think; now we speak of you as we think. Taking your representation of yourself, you are in the condition of the lower animals, for you claim inclination as the law of your life." "My beast is better than your man!" "You mean you get more of the good of life!" "Right! I do."