Hitt and his friend
had come, and, to the glad surprise of Carmen, Elizabeth Wall had
driven up in her car to take the girl for a ride, but had yielded to
the urgent invitation to join the little conference, "my plan, in
which I invite you to join, is, briefly, _to study this girl_!"

Carmen's eyes opened wide, and her face portrayed blank amazement, as
Father Waite stood pointing gravely to her. Nor were the others less
astonished--all but the Beaubien. She nodded her head comprehendingly.

"Let me explain," Father Waite continued. "We are assembled here
to-night as representatives, now or formerly, of very diversified
lines of human thought. I will begin with myself. I have stood as the
embodiment of Christly claims, as the active agent of one of the
mightiest of human institutions, the ancient Christian Church. For
years I have studied its accepted authorities and its all-inclusive
assumptions, which embrace heaven, earth, and hell. For years I sought
with sincere consecration to apply its precepts to the dire needs of
humanity. I have traced its origin in the dim twilight of the
Christian era and its progress down through the centuries, through
heavy vicissitudes to absolute supremacy, on down through schisms and
subsequent decline, to the present hour, when the great system seems
to be gathering its forces for a life and death stand in this, the New
World. I have known and associated with its dignitaries and its humble
priests. I know the policies and motives underlying its quiet
movements. I found it incompatible with human progress. And so I
withdrew from it my allegiance."

Carmen's thought, as she listened, was busy with another whose
experience had not been dissimilar, but about whom the human coils had
been too tightly wound to be so easily broken.

"Our scholarly friend, Mr. Hitt," Father Waite went on, "represented
the great protest against the abuses and corruption which permeated
the system for which I stood. He, like myself, embodied the eternal
warfare of the true believer against the heretic. Yet, without my
churchly system, I was taught to believe, he and those who share his
thought are damned. But, oh, strange anomaly! we both claimed the same
divine Father, and accepted the Christly definition of Him as Love. We
were two brothers of the same great family, yet calling each other
_anathema_!"

He looked over at Hitt and smiled. "And to-day," he continued, "we
brothers are humbly meeting on the c