"Don't you feel," she said suddenly, "on a night like this, all the
things, all the things--the stars have lives, Daddy, and the moon has a
big life, and the shadows have, and the moths and the birds and the goats
and the trees, and the flowers, and all of us--escaped? Oh! Daddy, why
is there a war? And why are people so bound and so unhappy? Don't tell
me it's God--don't!"

Pierson could not answer, for there came into his mind the Greek song he
had been reading aloud that afternoon--

"O for a deep and dewy Spring,
With runlets cold to draw and drink,
And a great meadow blossoming,
Long-grassed, and poplars in a ring,
To rest me by the brink.
O take me to the mountain, O,
Past the great pines and through the wood,
Up where the lean hounds softly go,
A-whine for wild things' blood,
And madly flies the dappled roe,
O God, to shout and speed them there;
An arrow by my chestnut hair
Drawn tight and one keen glimmering spear
Ah! if I could!"

All that in life had been to him unknown, of venture and wild savour; all
the emotion he had stifled; the swift Pan he had denied; the sharp
fruits, the burning suns, the dark pools, the unearthly moonlight, which
were not of God--all came with the breath of that old song, and the look
on the girl's face. And he covered his eyes.

Noel's hand tugged at his arm. "Isn't beauty terribly alive," she
murmured, "like a lovely person? it makes you ache to kiss it."

His lips felt parched. "There is a beauty beyond all that," he said
stubbornly.

"Where?"

"Holiness, duty, faith. O Nollie, my love!" But Noel's hand tightened
on his arm.

"Shall I tell you what I should like?" she whispered. "To take God's
hand and show Him things. I'm certain He's not seen everything."

A shudder went through Pierson, one of those queer sudden shivers, which
come from a strange note in a voice, or a new sharp scent or sight.

"My dear, what things you say!"

"But He hasn't, and it's time He did. We'd creep, and peep, and see it
all for once, as He can't in His churches. Daddy, oh! Daddy! I can't
bear it any more; to think of them being killed on a night like this;
killed and killed so that they never see it all again--never see
it--never see it!" She sank down, and covered her face with her arms.

"I can't, I can't! Oh! take it all away, the cruelty! Why does it
come--why the stars and the flowers, if G