ill give my whole heart and soul to my Maker if I can,' I answered,
'and not one atom more of it to you than He allows. What are you, sir,
that you should set yourself up as a god, and presume to dispute
possession of my heart with Him to whom I owe all I have and all I am,
every blessing I ever did or ever can enjoy--and yourself among the
rest--if you are a blessing, which I am half inclined to doubt.'

'Don't be so hard upon me, Helen; and don't pinch my arm so: you are
squeezing your fingers into the bone.'

'Arthur,' continued I, relaxing my hold of his arm, 'you don't love me
half as much as I do you; and yet, if you loved me far less than you do,
I would not complain, provided you loved your Maker more. I should
rejoice to see you at any time so deeply absorbed in your devotions that
you had not a single thought to spare for me. But, indeed, I should lose
nothing by the change, for the more you loved your God the more deep and
pure and true would be your love to me.'

At this he only laughed and kissed my hand, calling me a sweet
enthusiast. Then taking off his hat, he added: 'But look here,
Helen--what can a man do with such a head as this?'

The head looked right enough, but when he placed my hand on the top of
it, it sunk in a bed of curls, rather alarmingly low, especially in the
middle.

'You see I was not made to be a saint,' said he, laughing, 'If God meant
me to be religious, why didn't He give me a proper organ of veneration?'

'You are like the servant,' I replied, 'who, instead of employing his one
talent in his master's service, restored it to him unimproved, alleging,
as an excuse, that he knew him "to be a hard man, reaping where he had
not sown, and gathering where he had not strawed." Of him to whom less
is given, less will be required, but our utmost exertions are required of
us all. You are not without the capacity of veneration, and faith and
hope, and conscience and reason, and every other requisite to a
Christian's character, if you choose to employ them; but all our talents
increase in the using, and every faculty, both good and bad, strengthens
by exercise: therefore, if you choose to use the bad, or those which tend
to evil, till they become your masters, and neglect the good till they
dwindle away, you have only yourself to blame. But you have talents,
Arthur--natural endowments both of heart and mind and temper, such as
many a better Christian would be glad to possess, if you