, where she now waits to be freighted with
the precious fruits of living genius, and so on."

"That seems impressive and--mixed, perhaps?"

"Of course I can't remember things in their order, but it was about the
essential nature of man being gregarious, and truth is a potent factor in
civilisation, and something would be a tear on the world's cold cheek to
make it burn forever--isn't that striking? And Greece had her Athens and
her Corinth, but where now is Greece with her proud cities? And Rome,
Imperial Rome, with all her pomp and splendour. Of course I can't recall
his words. There was a beautiful reference to America, I remember, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the lakes of the frozen North to the
ever-tepid waters of the sunny South--and a perfectly splendid passage
about the world is and ever has been illiberal. Witness the lonely lamp of
Erasmus, the cell of Galileo, the dying bed of Pascal, the scaffold of
Sidney--Sidney who, I wonder?"

"Has it taken you that way, Aunt Bell?"

"And France, the saddest example of a nation without a God, and succeeding
generations will only add a new lustre to our present resplendent glory,
bound together by the most sacred ties of goodwill; independent, yet
acknowledging the sovereignty of Omnipotence, and it was fraught with
vital interest to every thinking man--"

"Spare me, Aunt Bell--it's like Coney Island, with all those carrousels
going around and five bands playing at once!"

"But his peroration! I can't pretend to give you any idea of its
beauties--"

"Don't!"

"Get him to declaim it for you. It begins in the most impressive language
about his standing on top of the Rocky Mountains one day and placing his
feet upon a solid rock, he saw a tempest gathering in the valley far
below. So he watches the storm--in his own language, of course--while all
around him is sunshine. And such should be our aim in life, to plant our
feet on the solid rock of--how provoking! I can't remember what the rock
was--anyway, we are to bid those in the valley below to cease their
bickerings and come up to the rock--I think it was Intellectual
Greatness--No!--Unselfishness--that's it. And the title of the paper was a
sermon in itself--'The Temporal Advantage of the Individual No Norm of
Morality.' Isn't that a beautiful thought in itself? Nancy, that chap will
waste himself until he has a city parish."

There was silence for a little time before Aunt Bell asked, as one having
re