s
so new and strange. The windows open towards the water, the fresh salt
air coming in, the India matting under her feet, made her feel as if
she had got into a new world. The dishes were also in part strange to
her, and her only companion fully strange. The good cup of tea she
received was almost the only familiar thing, for the very bread was
like no bread she had ever seen before. Diana sipped her tea
gratefully; all this novelty was the most welcome thing in the world to
her overstrained nerves. She sipped her tea as in a dream; the old lady
studied her with eyes wide awake and practical.

"Where did Basil pick you up, my dear?"

Diana started a little, looked up, and flushed.

"Where did you come from?"

"From the place where Mr. Masters has been settled these three or four
years."

"In the mountains! What sort of people have you got there? More of your
sort?"

"They are all of my sort," said Diana somewhat wonderingly.

"Do you know what your sort is, my dear?"

"I do not understand"--

"I thought you did not. I'll change my question. What sort of work is
Basil doing there?"

"You know his profession?"--Diana said, not knowing much better either
how to take this question.

"Yes, yes. I know his profession; I ought to, for I wanted him to be a
lawyer. But don't you know, my dear, there are all sorts of clergymen?
There are some make sermons as other men make bricks; and some more
like the way children blow soap-bubbles; all they care for is, how big
they are, and how high they will fly, and how long they will last. And
I have heard people preach," the old lady went on, "who seemed most
like as if they were laying out a Chinese puzzle, and you had to look
sharp to see where the pieces fitted. And some, again, preach sermons
as if they were a magistrate reading the Riot Act, only they don't want
the people to disperse by any means. What is Basil's way?"

"He has more ways than all these," said Diana, who could not help
smiling.

"These among 'em?"

"I think not."

"Go on, then, and tell me. What's he like in the pulpit?"

Diana considered how she should humour the old lady's wish.

"Sometimes he is like a shepherd leading his flock to pasture," she
began. "Sometimes he is like a lifeboat going out to pick up drowning
people. Sometimes it is rather a surgeon in a hospital, going round to
find out what is the matter with people and make them well. Sometimes
he is just the messenger of the Lord J