annot see how you get at that conclusion," I replied. "I must deny
your hypothesis, at the risk of engaging you in an argument." I could
not see what he was driving at.

"How can you believe in God, and yet condemn the noblest of His works as
altogether bad? You are not consistent."

"What makes you think I am so cynical?" I inquired, harking back to gain
time.

"A little cloud, a little sultriness in the air, is all that betrays the
coming _khemsin_, that by and by shall overwhelm and destroy man and
beast in its sandy darkness. You have made one or two remarks lately
that show little faith in human nature, and if you do not believe in
human nature what is there left for you to believe in? You said a moment
ago that I was the first grateful person you had ever met. Then the rest
of humanity are all selfish, and worshippers of themselves, and
altogether vile, since you yourself say, as I do, that ingratitude is
the unpardonable sin; and God has made a world full of unpardonable
sinners, and unless you include yourself in the exception you graciously
make in my favour, no one but I shall be saved. And yet you say also
with me that God is good. Do you deny that you are utterly
inconsistent?"

"I may make you some concession in a few minutes, but I am not going to
yield to such logic. You have committed the fallacy of the undistributed
middle term, if you care to know the proper name for it. I did not say
that all men, saving you, were ungrateful. I said that, saving you, the
persons I have met in my life have been ungrateful. You ought to
distinguish."

"All I can say is, then, that you have had a very unfortunate experience
of life," retorted Isaacs warmly.

"I have," said I, "but since you yield the technical point of logic, I
will confess that I made the assertion hastily and overshot the mark. I
do not remember, however, to have met any one who felt so strongly on
the point as you do."

"Now you speak like a rational being," said Isaacs, quite pacified.
"Extraordinary feelings are the result of unusual circumstances. I was
in such distress as rarely falls to the lot of an innocent man of fine
temperament and good abilities. I am now in a position of such wealth
and prosperity as still more seldom are given to a man of my age and
antecedents. I remember that I obtained the first step on my road to
fortune through the kindness of John Westonhaugh, though I could never
learn his name, and I met him at last, as y