a gently.

"But spinning cotton?"--

"Spinning cotton, or anything else that employs men and makes money."

"How?"

"You can do it for God, cannot you?" said Diana in the same way. "You
can employ the men and make the money for his sake, and in his service."

"But that is coming pretty close," said the millowner. "Suppose I want
a little of the money for myself and my family?"

"I am speaking too much!" said Diana, with a lovely flush on her cheek,
and looking up to her husband. "I wish you would take the word, Basil."

"I hope Mr. Masters is going to be a little more merciful to the
weaknesses of ordinary humanity," said Mr. Brandt, half lightly. "So
tremendous a preacher have I never heard yet."

Basil was silent, and Diana looked down at the volume in her hand.

"Won't you go on, Mrs. Masters?" said her host. "What do you find for
me there?"

"I was looking for my quotation," said Diana; "I had not got it quite
right."

"How is it?"

"Here is a list of the luxuries in which Babylon traded:--'The
merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls,
and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood,
and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most
precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and
odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine
flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, _and
slaves_, _and souls of men_.'"

"Sounds for all the world like an inventory of the things in my house,"
said Mr. Brandt. "Pray what of all that? Don't you like all those
things?"

"'--For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.'"

"But what harm in these things, or most of them, Mrs. Masters?"

Diana glanced up at Basil and did not answer. He answered.

"No harm--so long as business and the fruits of business are kept
within the line we were speaking of; so long as all is for God and to
God. If it is not for him, it is for the 'world.'"

"O my dear Mrs. Masters!" cried Mrs. Brandt, running in,--"here you
are. I was looking for you.--I came to ask--shall I order the landau
for five o'clock, to drive to the lake?"

Diana was glad to have the conversation broken up. When the hour for
the drive came, and she sank into the luxurious, satiny depths of the
landau, her thoughts involuntarily recurred to it. The carriage was so
very comfortable! It rolled smoothly along, over good roads, drawn by