y experience, I bring knowledge of
the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers, together with Church history. Mr.
Hitt brings his command of the Hebrew language and history, and an
intimate acquaintance with the ancient manuscripts, and Biblical
interpretation, together with a wide knowledge of the physical
sciences. Madam Beaubien, Miss Wall, and Mr. Haynerd contribute their
earnest, searching, inquisitive spirit, and a knowledge of the world's
needs. Moreover, we all come together without bias or prejudice. And
Carmen--she contributes that in which we have all been so woefully
lacking, and without which we can _never_ know God, the rarest,
deepest spirituality. She is a living proof of her faith. Shall we
undertake the search, my friends? It means a study of her thought, and
the basis upon which it rests."

The Beaubien raised her hand to her moist eyes. She was thinking of
that worldly coterie which formerly was wont to meet nightly in her
magnificent mansion to prey upon their fellows. Oh, how different the
spirit of this little gathering!

"You will meet here, with me," she said in a broken voice. "I ask
it."

There were none there unacquainted with the sorrows of this penitent,
broken woman. Each rose in turn and clasped her hand. Carmen threw
her arms about her neck and kissed her repeatedly.

"You see," said the Beaubien, smiling up through her tears, "what this
child's religion is? Would the swinging of incense burners and the
mumbling of priestly formulae enhance it?"

"Jesus said, 'Having seen me ye have seen God,'" said Father Waite.

"And I say," replied the Beaubien, "that having seen this child, you
have indeed seen Him."

CHAPTER 2

"I'm afraid," Haynerd was saying, as he and Father Waite were wending
their way to the Beaubien home a few evenings later, "that this Carmen
is the kind of girl you read about in sentimental novels; the kind who
are always just ready to step into heaven, but who count for little in
the warfare and struggle of actual mundane existence. You get me? She
isn't quite true to life, you know, as a book critic would say of an
impossible heroine."

"You mistake, my friend," replied Father Waite warmly. "She is the
very kind we would see oftener, were it not for the belief that years
bring wisdom, and so, as a consequence, the little child is crushed
beneath a load of false beliefs and human laws that make it reflect
its mortal parents, rather than its heavenly one."

"Bu