nd, especially in the East, innumerable traditions,
customs, prejudices, principles, superstitions, matted together in one
hopeless mass; she left them as they were; she recognised them; it would
have been the worse for her if she had done otherwise. All she said to the
peoples, all she dared say to them, was, 'You bear with me, and I will
bear with you.' Yet this you will not do; you Christians, who have no
pretence to any territory, who are not even the smallest of the peoples,
who are not even a people at all, you have the fanaticism to denounce all
other rites but your own, nay, the religion of great Rome. Who are you?
upstarts and vagabonds of yesterday. Older religions than yours, more
intellectual, more beautiful religions, which have had a position, and a
history, and a political influence, have come to nought; and shall you
prevail, you, a _congeries_, a hotch-potch of the leavings, and scraps,
and broken meat of the great peoples of the East and West? Blush, blush,
Grecian Callista, you with a glorious nationality of your own to go shares
with some hundred peasants, slaves, thieves, beggars, hucksters, tinkers,
cobblers, and fishermen! A lady of high character, of brilliant
accomplishments, to be the associate of the outcasts of society!"

Polemo's speech, though cumbrous, did execution, at least the termination
of it, upon minds constituted like the Grecian. Aristo jumped up, swore an
oath, and looked round triumphantly at Callista, who felt its force also.
After all, what did she know of Christians?--at best she was leaving the
known for the unknown: she was sure to be embracing certain evil for
contingent good. She said to herself, "No, I never can be a Christian."
Then she said aloud, "My Lord Polemo, I am not a Christian;--I never said I
was."

"That is her absurdity!" cried Aristo. "She is neither one thing nor the
other. She won't say she's a Christian, and she won't sacrifice!"

"It is my misfortune," she said, "I know. I am losing both what I see, and
what I don't see. It is most inconsistent: yet what can I do?"

Polemo had said what he considered enough. He was one of those who sold
his words. He had already been over-generous, and was disposed to give
away no more.

After a time, Callista said, "Polemo, do you believe in one God?"

"Certainly," he answered; "I believe in one eternal, self-existing
something."

"Well," she said, "I feel that God within my heart. I feel myself in His
presence.